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THE TRUE GRANDEUR 

OF NATIONS ' :;3 /. ; 

&-} / / 


REPRINTED FROM “ADDRESSES ON WAR” 


BY 

CHARLES SUMNER 


PUBLISHED FOR THE WORLD PEACE FOUNDATION 
GINN AND COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 
1911 


El %K<o 

1 % H-5%- 


This address is one of the three by Charles 
S um ner included in the volume, “Addresses 
on War ” (mailing price, 60 cents), published 
by the World Peace Foundation. 


LIBRARY 

AUG 31 1926 
Department of State. 


OCT 9 




1326 


COPYRIGHT, 1871, BY CHARLES SUMNER, AND 1882, BY FRANCIS V. BALCH, EXECUTOR 




THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


—♦— 

An Oration before the Authorities of the City 
of Boston, July 4 , 1845 . 


0, yet a nobler task awaits thy hand, 

(For what can war but endless war still breed ?) 

Till truth and right from violence be freed. 

Milton, Sonnet to Fairfax. 

.. ?* 0 ; 



1 









Pax optima rerum 

Quas homini novisse datum est; pax una triumphis 
Innumeris potior; pax custodire salutem 
Et cives sequare potens. 

Silius Italicus, Punica , Lib. XI. vv. 592 - 595. 

Sed majoris est gloriae ipsa bella verbo occidere quam homines ferro, 
et acquirere vel obtinere pacem pace, non bello.— Augustini Epistola 
cclxii., ad Darium Comitem. 

Certainly, if all who look upon themselves as men, not so much from 
the shape of their bodies as because they are endowed with reason, would 
listen awhile unto Christ’s wholesome and peaceable decrees, and not, 
puffed up with arrogance and conceit, rather believe their own opinions 
than his admonitions, the whole world long ago (turning the use of 
iron into milder works) should have lived in most quiet tranquillity, and 
have met together in a firm and indissoluble league of most safe con¬ 
cord.— Arnobius Afer, Adoersus Gentes, Lib. I. c. 6. 

And so for the first time [three hundred years after the Christian era] 
the meek and peaceful Jesus became a God of Battle, and the cross, the 
holy sign of Christian redemption, a banner of bloody strife. This ir¬ 
reconcilable incongruity between the symbol of universal peace and the 
horrors of war, in my judgment, is conclusive against the miraculous 
or supernatural character of the transaction [the vision of Constantine]. 

— I was agreeably surprised to find that Mosheim concurred in these 
sentiments, for which I will readily encounter the charge of Quakerism. 

— Milman, History of Christianity, Book III. chap. 1. 

When you see fighting, be peaceable; for a peaceable disposition shuts 
the door of contention. Oppose kindness to perverseness; the sharp 
sword will not cut soft silk. By using sweet words and gentleness you 
may lead an elephant with a hair. — Saadi, The Gulistan, translated by 
Francis Gladwin, Chap. III. Tale 28. 

Si l’on vous disait que tous les chats d’un grand pays se sont assem¬ 
bles par milliers dans une plaine, et qu’apres avoir miaule tout leur 
saoul, ils se sont jetes avec fureur les uns sur les autres, et ont joue en¬ 
semble de la dent et de la griffe, que de cette melee il est demeure de 
part et d’autre neuf a dix mille chats sur la place, qui ont infecte l’air 
a dix lieues de la par leur puanteur, ne diriez-vous pas, “ Voili le plus 
abominable sabbat dont on ait jamais ou'i parler ” ? Et si les loups 
en faisaient de meme, quels hurlements ! quelle boucherie ! Et si les uns 
ou les autres vous disaient qu y ils aiment la gloire, . . . . ne ririez-vous 
pas de tout votre cceur de l’ingenuite de ces pauvres betes 1 — La 
BruyLre, Les Caracteres: Des Jugements. 


3 


He was disposed to dissent from the maxim, which had of late years 
received very general assent, that the best security for the continuance 
of peace was to be prepared for war. That was a maxim which might 
have been applied to the nations of antiquity, and to society in a com¬ 
paratively barbarous and uncivilized state.Men, when they adopted 

such a maxim, and made large preparations in time of peace that would 
be sufficient in time of war, were apt to be influenced by the desire to 
put their efficiency to the test, that all their great preparations and the 
result of their toil and expense might not be thrown away. — Earl of 
Aberdeen, Hansard's Parliamentary Debates , July 20, 1849. 

Bellum para, si pacem velis, was a maxim regarded by many as con¬ 
taining an incontestable truth. It was one, in his opinion, to be received 

with great caution, and admitting of much qualification .We 

should best consult the true interests of the country by husbanding our 
resources in a time of peace, and, instead of a lavish expenditure on all 
the means of defence, by placing some trust in the latent and dormant 
energies of the nation. — Sir Robert Peel, Hansard's Parliamentary 
Debates, March 12, 1850. 

Let us terminate this disastrous system of rival expenditure, and mu¬ 
tually agree, with no hypocrisy, but in a manner and under circum¬ 
stances which can admit of no doubt, — by a reduction of armaments, — 
that peace is really our policy. — Mr D’Israeli, Hansard's Parlia¬ 
mentary Debates, July 21, 1859. 

All high titles of honor come hitherto from fighting. Your Herzoq 
(Duke, Dux) is Leader of Armies; your Earl ( Jarl ) is Strong Man ; 
your Marshal, Cavalry Horseshoer A Millennium, or Reign of Peace 
and Wisdom, having from of old been prophesied, and becoming now 
daily more and more indubitable, may it not be apprehended that such 
fighting titles will cease to be palatable, and new and higher need to 
be devised 1 — Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, Book III. chap. 7. 

After the memorable conflict of June, 1848, in which, as Chef de Ba- 
taillon, he {Ary Scheffer] had shown a capacity for military conduct not 
less remarked than his cool courage, General Changarnier, then com¬ 
manding the National Guard of Paris, tendered to Scheffer’s accept¬ 
ance the cross of Commandeur. He replied, “ Had this honorable dis 
tinction been offered to me in my quality of Artist, and as a recognition 
of the merit of my works, I should receive it with deference and sat¬ 
isfaction. But to carry about me a decoration reminding me only 

of the horrors of civil war is what I cannot consent to do.”_ Ary 

Scheffer, Lije by Mrs. Grote, Appendix. 


4 




ORATION 


I N accordance with uninterrupted usage, on this Sab¬ 
bath of the Nation, we have put aside our daily- 
cares, and seized a respite from the never-ending toils 
of life, to meet in gladness and congratulation, mindful 
of the blessings transmitted from the Past, mindful also, 
I trust, of our duties to the Present and the Future. 

All hearts turn first to the Fathers of the Republic. 
Their venerable forms rise before us, in the procession 
of successive generations. They come from the frozen 
rock of Plymouth, from the wasted bands of Raleigh, 
from the heavenly companionship of Penn, from the 
anxious councils of the Revolution, — from all those 
fields of sacrifice, where, in obedience to the spirit of 
their age, they sealed their devotion to duty with their 
blood. They say to us, their children, “ Cease to vaunt 
what you do, and what has been done for you. Learn 
to walk meekly and to think humbly. Cultivate habits 
of self-sacrifice. Never aim at what is not right, per¬ 
suaded that without this every possession and all knowl¬ 
edge will become an evil and a shame. And may these 
words of ours be ever in your minds ! Strive to increase 
the inheritance we have bequeathed to you, — bearing in 
mind always, that, if we excel you in virtue, such a vic- 

5 



6 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


tory will be to us a mortification, while defeat will bring 
happiness. In this way you may conquer us. Noth¬ 
ing is more shameful for a man than a claim to esteem, 
not on his own merits, but on the fame of his ancestors. 
The glory of the fathers is doubtless to their children a 
most precious treasure; but to enjoy it without trans¬ 
mission to the next generation, and without addition, is 
the extreme of ignominy. Following these counsels, 
when your days on earth are finished, you will come 
to join us, and we shall receive you as friend receives 
friend; but if you neglect our words, expect no happy 
greeting from us.” 1 

Honor to the memory of our fathers ! May the turf 
lie lightly on their sacred graves ! Not in words only, 
but in deeds also, let us testify our reverence for their 
name, imitating what in them was lofty, pure, and 
good, learning from them to bear hardship and priva¬ 
tion. May we, who now reap in strength what they 
sowed in weakness, augment the inheritance we have 
received ! To this end, we must not fold our hands in 
slumber, nor abide content with the past. To each 
generation is appointed its peculiar task; nor does the 
heart which responds to the call of duty find rest ex¬ 
cept in the grave. 

Be ours the task now in the order of Providence cast 
upon us. And what is this duty ? What can we do to 
make our coming welcome to our fathers in the skies, 
and draw to our memory hereafter the homage of a 
grateful posterity ? How add to the inheritance re¬ 
ceived ? The answer must interest all, particularly on 

1 This is borrowed almost literally from the words attributed by Plato 
to the Fathers of Athens, in the beautiful funeral discourse of the Me- 
nexenus. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


7 


this festival, when we celebrate the Nativity of the Re¬ 
public. It well becomes the patriot citizen, on this 
anniversary, to consider the national character, and how 
it may be advanced, — as the good man dedicates his 
birthday to meditation on his life, and to resolutions 
of improvement. Avoiding, then, all exultation in the 
abounding prosperity of the land, and in that free¬ 
dom whose influence is widening to the uttermost cir¬ 
cles of the earth, I would turn attention to the char¬ 
acter of our country, and humbly endeavor to learn 
what must be done that the Republic may best secure 
the welfare of the people committed to its care, — that 
it may perform its part in the world’s history, — that it 
may fulfil the aspirations of generous hearts, — and, 
practising that righteousness which exalteth a nation, 
attain to the elevation of True Grandeur. 

With this aim, and believing that I can in no other 
way so fitly fulfil the trust reposed in me to-day, I pur¬ 
pose to consider what, in our age, are the true objects of 
national ambition , — what is truly National Honor , 
National Glory, — what is the true grandeur of 
nations. I would not depart from the modesty that 
becomes me, yet I am not without hope that I may do 
something to rescue these terms, now so powerful over 
the minds of men, from mistaken objects, especially 
from deeds of war, and the extension of empire, that 
they may be applied to works of justice and benefi¬ 
cence, which are better than war or empire. 

The subject may be novel, on an occasion like the 
present; but it is comprehensive, and of transcendent 
importance. It raises us to the contemplation of things 
not temporary or local, but belonging to all ages and 


8 THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 

countries, — things lofty as Truth, universal as Hu¬ 
manity. Nay, more; it practically concerns the gen¬ 
eral welfare, not only of our own cherished Repub¬ 
lic, but of the whole Federation of Nations. It has 
an urgent interest from transactions in which we are 
now unhappily involved. By an act of unjust legis¬ 
lation, extending our power over Texas, peace with 
Mexico is endangered, — while, by petulant assertion 
of a disputed claim to a remote territory beyond the 
Rocky Mountains, ancient fires of hostile strife are 
kindled anew on the hearth of our mother country. 
Mexico and England both avow the determination to 
vindicate what is called the National Honor; and our 
Government calmly contemplates the dread Arbitra¬ 
ment of War, provided it cannot obtain what is called 
an honorable peace. 

Far from our nation and our age be the sin and 
shame of contests hateful in the sight of God and all 
good men, having their origin in no righteous sentiment, 
no true love of country, no generous thirst for fame, 
“ that last infirmity of noble mind,” but springing mani¬ 
festly from an ignorant and ignoble passion for new ter¬ 
ritory, strengthened, in our case, in a republic whose 
star is Liberty, by unnatural desire to add new links 
. in chains destined yet to fall from the limbs of the 
unhappy slave ! In such contests God has no attribute 
which can join with us. Who believes that the na¬ 
tional honor would be promoted by a war with Mexico 
or a war with England ? What just man would sacri¬ 
fice a single human life to bring under our rule both 
Texas and Oregon ? An ancient Roman, ignorant of 
Christian truth, touched only by the relation of fellow- 
countryman, and not of fellow-man, said, as he turned 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


9 


aside from a career of Asiatic conquest, that he would 
rather save the life of a single citizen than win to his 
power all the dominions of Mithridates. 1 

A war with Mexico would be mean and cowardly; 
with England it would be bold at least, though parrici¬ 
dal. The heart sickens at the murderous attack upon 
an enemy distracted by civil feud, weak at home, impo¬ 
tent abroad ; but it recoils in horror from the deadly shock 
between children of a common ancestry, speaking the 
same language, soothed in infancy by the same words 
of love and tenderness, and hardened into vigorous man¬ 
hood under the bracing influence of institutions instinct 
with the same vital breath of freedom. The Roman his¬ 
torian has aptly pictured this unnatural combat. Rarely 
do words of the past so justly describe the present. Cu- 
ram acuebat, quod adversus Latinos bellandum erat , lin¬ 
gua, moribus, armorum genere, institutis ante omnia 
militaribus congruentes: milites militibus , centurioni- 
bus centuriones, tribuni tribunis compares collegceque, 
iisdcm prccsidiis, scope iisdem manipulis permixti fite¬ 
rant? 

Can there be in our age any peace that is not hon¬ 
orable, any war that is not dishonorable ? The true 
honor of a nation is conspicuous only in deeds of 
justice and beneficence, securing and advancing hu¬ 
man happiness. In the clear eye of that Christian 
judgment which must yet prevail, vain are the victo¬ 
ries of War, infamous its spoils. He is the benefactor, 
and worthy of honor, who carries comfort to wretched¬ 
ness, dries the tear of sorrow, relieves the unfortu¬ 
nate, feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, does jus¬ 
tice, enlightens the ignorant, unfastens the fetters of 

1 Plutarch, Lucullus , Cap. VIII. 2 Livy, Hist., Lib. VIII. c. 6. 


10 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


the slave, and finally, by virtuous genius, in art, lit¬ 
erature, science, enlivens and exalts the hours of life, 
or, by generous example, inspires a love for God and 
man. This is the Christian hero; this is the man of 
honor in a Christian land. He is no benefactor, nor 
worthy of honor, whatever his worldly renown, whose 
life is absorbed in feats of brute force, who renounces 
the great law of Christian brotherhood, whose vocation 
is blood. Well may the modern poet exclaim, “The 
world knows nothing of its greatest men! ” — for thus 
far it has chiefly honored the violent brood of Battle, 
armed men springing up from the dragon’s teeth sown 
by Hate, and cared little for the truly good men, chil¬ 
dren of Love, guiltless of their country’s blood, whose 
steps on earth are noiseless as an angel’s wing. 

It will not be disguised that this standard differs from 
that of the world even in our day. The voice of man 
is yet given to martial praise, and the honors of victory 
are chanted even by the lips of woman. The mother, 
rocking the infant on her knee, stamps the images of 
War upon his tender mind, at that age more im¬ 
pressible than wax; she nurses his slumber with its 
music, pleases his waking hours with its stories, and 
selects for his playthings the plume and the sword. 
From the child is formed the man; and who can weish 
the influence of a mother’s spirit on the opinions of his 
life ? The mind which trains the child is like a hand 
at the end of a long lever; a gentle effort suffices to 
heave the enormous weight of succeeding years. As the 
boy advances to youth, he is fed like Achilles, not on 
honey and milk only, but on bears’ marrow and lions’ 
hearts. He draws the nutriment of his soul from a lit¬ 
erature whose beautiful fields are moistened by human 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


11 


blood. Fain would I offer my tribute to the Father of 
Poetry, standing with harp of immortal melody on the 
misty mountain-top of distant Antiquity, — to those 
stories of courage and sacrifice which emblazon the an¬ 
nals of Greece and Rome, — to the fulininations of De¬ 
mosthenes and the splendors of Tully, — to the sweet 
verse of Yirgil and the poetic prose of Livy; fain would 
I offer my tribute to the new literature, which shot up 
in modern times as a vigorous forest from the burnt site 
of ancient woods, — to the passionate song of the Trou¬ 
badour in France and the Minnesinger in Germany,— 
to the thrilling ballad of Spain and the delicate music 
of the Italian lyre : but from all these has breathed the 
breath of War, that has swept the heart-strings of men 
in all the thronging generations. 

And when the youth becomes a man, his country in¬ 
vites his service in war, and holds before his bewildered 
imagination the prizes of worldly honor. For him the 
pen of the historian and the verse of the poet. His 
soul is taught to swell at the thought that he, too, is a 
soldier, — that his name shall be entered on the list of 
those who have borne arms for their country; and per¬ 
haps he dreams that he, too, may sleep, like the Great 
Captain of Spain, with a hundred trophies over his 
grave. The law of the land throws its sanction over 
this frenzy. The contagion spreads beyond those sub¬ 
ject to positive obligation. Peaceful citizens volunteer 
to appear as soldiers, and affect, in dress, arms, and de¬ 
portment, what is called the “ pride, pomp, and circum¬ 
stance of glorious war.” The ear-piercing fife has to¬ 
day filled our streets, and we have come to this church, 
on this National Sabbath, by the thump of drum and 
with the parade of bristling bayonets. 


12 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


It is not strange, then, that the Spirit of War still 
finds a home among us, nor that its honors continue to 
be regarded. All this may seem to illustrate the bitter 
philosophy of Hobbes, declaring that the natural state 
of mankind is War, and to sustain the exulting language 
of the soldier in our own day, when he wrote, “ War is the 
condition of this world. From man to the smallest in¬ 
sect, all are at strife; and the glory of arms, which can¬ 
not be obtained without the exercise of honor, fortitude, 
courage, obedience, modesty, and temperance, excites 
the brave man’s patriotism, and is a chastening correc¬ 
tive for the rich man’s pride.” 1 This is broad and bold. 
In madder mood, another British general is reported as 
saying, “ Why, man, do you know that a grenadier is 
the greatest character in this world,” — and after a mo¬ 
ment’s pause, with the added emphasis of an oath, “ and, 
I believe, in the next, too.” 2 All these spoke in har¬ 
mony. If one is true, all are true. A French voice has 
struck another note, chanting nothing less than the di¬ 
vinity of war, hailing it as “ divine ” in itself, — “ di¬ 
vine” in its consequences,—“divine” in mysterious glory 
and seductive attraction, — “ divine ” in the manner of 
its declaration, — “ divine ” in the results obtained, — 
“ divine ” in the undefinable force by which its tri¬ 
umph is determined ; 3 and the whole earth, continually 
imbibing blood, is nothing but an immense altar, where 
life is immolated without end, without measure, with¬ 
out respite. But this oracle is not saved from rejec¬ 
tion even by the magistral style in which it is deliv¬ 
ered. 

1 Napier, Peninsular War, Book XXIV. ch. 6, Vol. VI. p. 688. 

2 Southey, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society, Coll. VIII., 
Vol. I. p. 211. 

8 Joseph de Maistre, Soirdes de Saint-Pdtersbourg, Tom. II. pp. 27,32-35. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 13 

Alas! in the existing attitude of nations, the infidel 
philosopher and the rhetorical soldier, to say nothing 
of the giddy general and the French priest of Mars, find 
too much support for a theory which degrades human 
nature and insults the goodness of God. It is true that 
in us are impulses unhappily tending to strife. Pro¬ 
pensities possessed in common with the beast, if not 
subordinated to what in man is human, almost divine, 
will break forth in outrage. This is the predominance 
of the animal. Hence wars and fightings, with the 
false glory which crowns such barbarism. But the 
true civilization of nations, as of individuals, is deter¬ 
mined by the extent to which these evil dispositions are 
restrained. Nor does the teacher ever more truly per¬ 
form his high office than when, recognizing the suprem¬ 
acy of the moral and intellectual, he calls upon nations, 
as upon individuals, to declare independence of the bes¬ 
tial, to abandon practices founded on this part of our 
nature, and in every way to beat down that brutal spirit 
which is the Genius of War. In making this appeal, he 
will be startled as he learns, that, while the municipal 
law of each Christian nation, discarding the Arbitra¬ 
ment of Force, provides a judicial tribunal for the 
determination of controversies between individuals, In¬ 
ternational Law expressly establishes the Arbitrament of 
War for the determination of controversies between 
nations. 

Here, then, in unfolding the True Grandeur of Na¬ 
tions, we encounter a practice, or custom , sanctioned by 
the Law of Nations, and constituting a part of that law, 
which exists in defiance of principles such as no indi¬ 
viduals can disown. If it is wrong and inglorious when 
individuals consent and agree to determine their petty 


14 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


controversies by combat, it must be equally wrong and 
inglorious when nations consent and agree to determine 
their vaster controversies by combat. Here is a positive, 
precise, and specific evil, of gigantic proportions, incon¬ 
sistent with what is truly honorable, making within the 
sphere of its influence all true grandeur impossible, 
which, instead of proceeding from some uncontrollable 
impulse of our nature, is expressly established and organ¬ 
ized by law. 

As all citizens are parties to Municipal Law, and re¬ 
sponsible for its institutions, so are all the Christian 
nations parties to International Law, and responsible for 
its provisions. By recognizing these provisions, nations 
consent and agree beforehand to the Arbitrament of War, 
precisely as citizens, by recognizing Trial by Jury, con¬ 
sent and agree beforehand to the latter tribunal. As, to 
comprehend the true nature of Trial by Jury, we first 
repair to the Municipal Law by which it is established, 
so, to comprehend the true nature of the Arbitrament 
of War, we must first repair to the Law of Nations. 

Writers of genius and learning have defined this ar¬ 
bitrament, and laid down the rules by which it is gov¬ 
erned, constituting a complex code, with innumerable 
subtile provisions regulating the resort to it and the 
manner in which it must be conducted, called the 
Laws of War. In these quarters we catch our first au¬ 
thentic glimpses of its folly and wickedness. Accord¬ 
ing to Lord Bacon, whose authority is always great, 
“ W ars are no massacres and confusions, but they are 
the highest Trials of Right, when princes and states, that 
acknowledge no superior upon earth, shall put them¬ 
selves upon the justice of God for the deciding of their 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


15 


controversies by such success as it shall please him to 
give on either side.” 1 This definition of the English 
philosopher is adopted by the American jurist, Chancel¬ 
lor Kent, in his Commentaries on American Law. 2 3 The 
Swiss publicist, Yattel, whose work is accepted as an 
important repository of the Law of Nations, defines 
War as “that state in which a nation prosecutes its 
right by force!’ 3 In this he very nearly follows the 
eminent Dutch authority, Bynkershoek, who says, “ Bel- 
lum est eorum, qui suae potestatis sunt, juris sui per- 
sequendi ergo , concertatio per vim vel dolum.” 4 * Mr. 
Wliewell, who has done so much to illustrate philoso¬ 
phy in all its departments, says, in his recent work on 
the Elements of Morality and Polity, “ Though war is 
appealed to, because there is no other ultimate tribu¬ 
nal to which states can have recourse, it is appealed to 
for justice .” 5 And in our country, Dr. Lieber says, in 
a work of learning and sagacious thought, that war is 
undertaken “in order to obtain right,” 6 —a definition 
which hardly differs in form from those of Yattel and 
Bynkershoek. 

In accordance with these texts, I would now define 
the evil which I arraign. War is a public armed contest 
between nations , under the sanction of International Law , 
to establish justice between them: as, for instance, to de¬ 
termine a disputed boundary, the title to territory, or a 
claim for damages. 

This definition is confined to contests between nations. 

1 Observations upon a Libel, etc., Work*, Vol. HI. p. 40. 

2 Lecture III., Vol. I. p. 45. 

3 Book III. ch. 1, sec. 1. 

4 Quaest. Jur. Pub., Lib. I. cap. 1. 

3 Book VI. ch. 2. art. 1146. 

6 Political Ethics, Book VII. sec. 19, Vol. II. p. 643. 


16 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


It is restricted to International War, carefully excluding 
the question, often agitated, concerning the right of 
revolution, and that other question, on which friends 
of peace sometimes differ, the right of personal self- 
defence. It does not in any way throw doubt on the 
employment of force in the administration of justice 
or the conservation of domestic quiet. 

It is true that the term defensive is always applied 
to wars in our day. And it is creditable to the moral 
sense that nations are constrained to allege this seem¬ 
ing excuse, although its absurdity is apparent in the 
equal pretensions of the two belligerents, each claim¬ 
ing to act on the defensive. It is unreasonable to sup¬ 
pose that war can arise in the present age, under the 
sanctions of International Law, except to determine an 
asserted right. Whatever its character in periods of 
barbarism, or when invoked to repel an incursion of 
robbers or pirates, “ enemies of the human race,” war 
becomes in our day, among all the nations parties to ex¬ 
isting International Law , simply a mode of litigation, 
or of deciding a lis pendens. It is a mere trial of 
right, an appeal for justice to force. The wars now 
lowering from Mexico and England are of this char¬ 
acter. On the one side, we assert a title to Texas, 
which is disputed; on the other, we assert a title to 
Oregon, which is disputed. Only according to “ mar¬ 
tial logic,” or the “ flash language ” of a dishonest 
patriotism, can the Ordeal by Battle be regarded in 
these causes, on either side, as Defensive War. Nor 
did the threatened war with France in 1834 prom¬ 
ise to assume any different character. Its professed 
object was to obtain the payment of five million dol¬ 
lars, — in other words, to determine by this Ultimate 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


17 


Tribunal a simple question of justice. And going back 
still farther in our history, the avowed purpose of the 
war against Great Britain in 1812 was to obtain from 
the latter power an abandonment of the claim to search 
American vessels. Unrighteous as was this claim, it 
is plain that war here was invoked only as a Trial of 
Right. 

It forms no part of my purpose to consider individ¬ 
ual wars in the past, except so far as necessary by way 
of example. My aim is higher. I wish to expose an 
irrational, cruel, and impious custom , sanctioned by the 
Law of Nations. On this account I resort to that 
supreme law for the definition on which I plant my¬ 
self in the effort I now make. 

After considering, in succession, first , the character 
of war, secondly , the miseries it produces, and, thirdly , 
its utter and pitiful insufficiency, as a mode of de¬ 
termining justice, we shall be able to decide, strictly 
and logically, whether it must not be ranked as crime, 
from which no true honor can spring to individuals or 
nations. To appreciate this evil, and the necessity for 
its overthrow, it will be our duty, fourthly, to consider 
in succession the various prejudices by which it is sus¬ 
tained, ending with that prejudice, so gigantic and all- 
embracing, at whose command uncounted sums are 
madly diverted from purposes of peace to preparations 
for war. The whole subject is infinitely practical, 
while the concluding division shows how the public 
treasury may be relieved, and new means secured for 
human advancement. 


18 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


I. 

First, as to the essential character and root of war, 
or that part of our nature whence it proceeds. Listen 
to the voice from the ancient poet of Boeotian Ascra: — 

“ This is the law for mortals, ordained by the Ruler of Heaven- 
Fishes and beasts and birds of the air devour each other; 

Justice dwells not among them: only to man has he given 
Justice the Highest and Best." 1 

These words of old Hesiod exhibit the distinction be¬ 
tween man and beast; but this very distinction be¬ 
longs to the present discussion. The idea rises to the 
mind at once, that war is a resort to brute force, where 
nations strive to overpower each other. Beason, and 
the divine part of our nature, where alone we differ 
from the beast, where alone we approach the Divinity, 
where alone are the elements of that justice which is 
the professed object of war, are rudely dethroned. For 
the time men adopt the nature of beasts, emulating 
their ferocity, like them rejoicing in blood, and with 
lion’s paw clutching an asserted right. Though in more 
recent days this character is somewhat disguised by 
the skill and knowledge employed, war is still the same, 
only more destructive from the genius and intellect 
which have become its servants. The primitive poets, 
in the unconscious simplicity of the world’s childhood, 
make this boldly apparent. The heroes of Homer are 
likened to animals in ungovernable fury, or to things 
devoid of reason or affection. Menelaus presses his 

1 Hesiod, Works and Days, w. 276-279. Cicero also says, “ Neque ulla 
re longius absumus a natura ferarum, in quibus inesse fortitudinem ssepe 
dicimus, ut in equis, in leombus; justitiam, gequitatem, bonitatem non 
dicimus.” — De Offic., Lib. I. cap. 16. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 19 

way through the crowd “ like a wild beast.” Sarpedon 
is aroused against the Argives, “ as a lion against the 
crooked-horned oxen,” and afterwards rushes forward 
“like a lion nurtured on the mountains, for a long 
time famished for want of flesh, but whose courage 
impels him to attack even the well-guarded sheep- 
fold.” In one and the same passage, the great Tela- 
monian Ajax is “wild beast,” “tawny lion,” and “dull 
ass ” ; and all the Greek chiefs, the flower of the camp, 
are ranged about Diomed, “ like raw-eating lions, or wild- 
boars, whose strength is irresistible.” Even Hector, the 
model hero, with all the virtues of war, is praised as 
“ tamer of horses ”; and one of his renowned feats in 
battle, indicating brute strength only, is where he takes 
up and hurls a stone which two of our strongest men 
could not easily lift into a wagon; and he drives over 
dead bodies and shields, while the axle is defiled by 
gore, and the guard about the seat is sprinkled from the 
horses’ hoofs and the tires of the wheels ; 1 and in that 
most admired passage of ancient literature, before re¬ 
turning his child, the young Astyanax, to the arms of 
the wife he is about to leave, this hero of war invokes 
the gods for a single blessing on the boy’s head, — “ that 
he may excel his father, and bring home bloody spoils, 
his enemy being slain, and so make glad the heart of his 
mother ! ” 

From early fields of modern literature, as from those 
of antiquity, might be gathered similar illustrations, 
showing the unconscious degradation of the soldier, in 
vain pursuit of justice, renouncing the human character, 


1 Little better than Trojan Hector was the “ great ” Condd ranging over 
the field and exulting in the blood of the enemy, which defiled his sword- 
arm to the elbow. — Mahon, Essai sur la Vie du Grand Cond4, p. 60. 


20 THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 

to assume that of brute. Bayard, the exemplar of chiv¬ 
alry, with a name always on the lips of its votaries, 
was described by the qualities of beasts, being, accord¬ 
ing to his admirers, ram in attack , wild-boar in defence, 
and wolf in flight. Henry the Fifth, as represented by 
our own Shakespeare, in the spirit-stirring appeal to his 
troops exclaims,— 

“ When the blast of war blows in our ears, 

Then imitate the action of the tiger.” 

This is plain and frank, revealing the true character of 
war. 

I need not dwell on the moral debasement that must 
ensue. Passions, like so many bloodhounds, are un¬ 
leashed and suffered to rage. Crimes filling our pris¬ 
ons stalk abroad in the soldier’s garb, unwhipped of 
justice. Murder, robbery, rape, arson, are the sports 
of this fiendish Saturnalia, when 

“ The gates of mercy shall be all shut up, 

And the fleshed soldier, rough and hard of heart, 

In liberty of bloody hand shall range 
With conscience wide as hell.” 

By a bold, but truthful touch, Shakespeare thus pic¬ 
tures the foul disfigurement which war produces in man, 
whose native capacities he describes in those beautiful 
words : “ How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties ! 
in form and moving how express and admirable! in ac¬ 
tion how like an angel! in apprehension how like a 
god! ” And yet this nobility of reason, this infinitude 
of faculties, this marvel of form and motion, this nature 
so angelic, so godlike, are all, under the transforming 
power of War, lost in the action of the beast, or the 
license of the fleshed soldier with bloody hand and 
conscience wide as hell. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


21 


II. 

The immediate effect of war is to sever all relations 
of friendship and commerce between the belligerent na¬ 
tions, and every individual thereof, impressing upon each 
citizen or subject the character of enemy. Imagine this 
instant change between England and the United States. 
The innumerable ships of the two countries, the white 
doves of commerce, bearing the olive of peace, are 
driven from the sea, or turned from peaceful purposes 
to be ministers of destruction; the threads of social 
and business intercourse, so carefully woven into a 
thick web, are suddenly snapped asunder; friend can 
no longer communicate with friend; the twenty thou¬ 
sand letters speeded each fortnight from this port alone 
are arrested, and the human affections, of which they 
are the precious expression, seek in vain for utterance. 
Tell me, you with friends and kindred abroad, or you 
bound to other lands only by relations of commerce, are 
you ready for this rude separation ? 

This is little compared with what must follow. It is 
but the first portentous shadow of disastrous eclipse, 
twilight usher of thick darkness, covering the whole 
heavens with a pall, broken only by the lightnings of 
battle and siege. 

Such horrors redden the historic page, while, to the 
scandal of humanity, they never want historians with 
feelings kindred to those by which they are inspired. 
The demon that draws the sword also guides the pen. 
The favorite chronicler of modern Europe, Froissart, dis¬ 
covers his sympathies in his Prologue, where, with 


22 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


something of apostleship, he announces his purpose, 
“that the honorable enterprises and noble adventures 
and feats of arms which happened in the wars of France 
and England be notably registered and put in perpetual 
memory/’ and then proceeds to bestow his equal admi¬ 
ration upon bravery and cunning, upon the courtesy 
which pardoned as upon the rage which caused the flow 
of blood in torrents, dwelling with especial delight on 
“ beautiful incursions, beautiful rescues, beautiful feats 
of arms, and beautiful prowesses ”; and wantoning in 
pictures of cities assaulted, “ which, being soon gained 
by force, were robbed, and men and women and children 
put to the sword without mercy, while the churches were 
burnt and violated.” 1 This was in a barbarous age. 
But popular writers in our own day, dazzled by false 
ideas of greatness, at which reason and humanity 
blush, do not hesitate to dwell on similar scenes even 
with rapture and eulogy. The humane soul of Wilber- 
force, which sighed that England’s “ bloody laws sent 
many unprepared into another world,” could hail the 
slaughter of Waterloo, by which thousands were hurried 
into eternity on the Sabbath he held so holy, as a 
“ splendid victory.” 2 

My present purpose is less to judge the historian than 
to expose the horrors on horrors which he applauds. 
At Tarragona, above six thousand human beings, almost 
all defenceless, men and women, gray hairs and infant 
innocence, attractive youth and wrinkled age, were 
butchered by the infuriate troops in one night, and the 
morning sun rose upon a city whose streets and houses 

1 Froissart, Les Chroniques, Ch. 177, 179, Collection de Buchon, Tom. II. 
pp. 87, 92. 

2 Life of William Wilberforce, by his Sons, Ch. 30, Vol. IV. pp. 256, 261. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


23 


were inundated with blood: and yet this is called a 
“glorious exploit.” 1 Here was a conquest by the 
French. At a later day, Ciudad Rodrigo was stormed by 
the British, when, in the license of victory, there ensued 
a savage scene of plunder and violence, while shouts 
and screams on all sides mingled fearfully with the 
groans of the wounded. Churches were desecrated, cel¬ 
lars of wine and spirits were pillaged, fire was wantonly 
applied to the city, and brutal intoxication spread in 
every direction. Only when the drunken dropped from 
excess, or fell asleep, was any degree of order restored: 
and yet the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo is pronounced 
“ one of the most brilliant exploits of the British army.” 2 
This “beautiful feat of arms” was followed by the 
storming of Badajoz, where the same scenes were en¬ 
acted again, with accumulated atrocities. The story shall 
he told in the words of a partial historian, who himself 
saw what he eloquently describes. “ Shameless rapacity, 
brutal intemperance, savage lust, cruelty, and murder, 
shrieks and piteous lamentations, groans, shouts, impre¬ 
cations, the hissing of fires bursting from the houses, the 
crashing of doors and windows, and the reports of mus¬ 
kets used in violence, resounded for two days and nights 
in the streets of Badajoz. On the third, when the city 
was sacked, when the soldiers were exhausted by their 
own excesses, the tumult rather subsided than was 
quelled. The wounded men were then looked to, the 
dead disposed of.” 3 All this is in the nature of confes¬ 
sion, for the historian is a partisan of battle. 

The same terrible war affords another instance of 
atrocities at a siege crying to Heaven. For weeks be- 


1 Alison, Hist, of Europe, Ch. 61, Vol. VIII. p. 237. 

2 Ibid., Ch. 64, Vol. VIII. p. 482. 

* Napier, Hist. Peninsular War, Book XVI. ch. 5, Vol. IV. p. 431. 


24 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


fore the surrender of Saragossa, the deaths daily were 
from four to five hundred; and as the living could not 
bury the increasing mass, thousands of carcasses, scat¬ 
tered in streets and court-yards, or piled in heaps at the 
doors of churches, were left to dissolve in their own 
corruption, or be licked up by the flames of burning 
houses. The city was shaken to its foundations by six¬ 
teen thousand shells, and the explosion of forty-five 
thousand pounds of powder in the mines, — while the 
bones of forty thousand victims, of every age and both 
sexes, bore dreadful testimony to the unutterable cruelty 
of War. 1 

These might seem pictures from the life of Alaric, 
who led the Goths to Rome, or of Attila, general of 
the Huns, called the Scourge of God, and who boasted 
that the grass drd not grow where his horse had set 
his foot; but no ! they belong to our own times. They 
are portions of the wonderful, but wicked, career of 
him who stands forth the foremost representative of 
worldly grandeur. The heart aches, as we follow him 
and his marshals from field to field of Satanic glory, 2 
finding everywhere, from Spain to Russia, the same 
carnival of woe. The picture is various, yet the same. 
Suffering, wounds, and death, in every form, fill the 
terrible canvas. What scene more dismal than that 
of Albuera, with its horrid piles of corpses, while all 
night the rain pours down, and river, hill, and forest, 

1 Napier, Book V. ch. 3, Vol. IT. p. 46. 

2 A living poet of Italy, who will be placed by his prose among the great 
names of his country’s literature, in a remarkable ode which he has thrown 
on the urn of Napoleon invites posterity to judge whether his career of 
battle was True Glory. 

“ Fu vera gloria? Ai posteri 
L’ ardua sentenza.” — Manzoni, II Cinque Maggio. 
When men learn to appreciate moral grandeur, the easy sentence will be 
rendered. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 25 

on each side, resound with the cries and groans of the 
dying ? 1 What scene more awfully monumental than 
Salamanca, where, long after the great battle, the 
ground, strewn with fragments of casques and cui¬ 
rasses, was still white with the skeletons of those who 
fell ? 2 What catalogue of horrors more complete than 
the Russian campaign ? At every step is war, and 
this is enough : soldiers black with powder; bayonets 
bent with the violence of the encounter; the earth 
ploughed with cannon-shot; trees torn and mutilated; 
the dead and dying; wounds and agony; fields cov¬ 
ered with broken carriages, outstretched horses, and 
mangled bodies; while disease, sad attendant on mili¬ 
tary suffering, sweeps thousands from the great hos¬ 
pitals, and the multitude of amputated limbs, which 
there is no time to destroy, accumulate in bloody heaps, 
filling the air with corruption. What tongue, what pen, 
can describe the bloody havoc at Borodino, where, 
between rise and set of a single sun, one hundred 
thousand of our fellow-men, equalling in number the 
whole population of this city, sank to earth, dead or 
wounded ? 3 Fifty days after the battle, no less than 
thirty thousand are found stretched where their last 
convulsions ended, and the whole plain is strewn with 
half-buried carcasses of men and horses, intermingled 
with garments dyed in blood, and bones gnawed by 
dogs and vultures. 4 Who can follow the French army 
in dismal retreat, avoiding the spear of the pursuing 
Cossack only to sink beneath the sharper frost and ice, 

1 Napier, Book XII. ch. 7, Vol. III. p 543. 

2 Alison, Ch. 64, Vol. VIII. p. 589. 

3 Ibid., Ch. 67, Vol. VIII. p 871 

4 Ibid., Ch. 68, Vol. VIII. p. 930. S^gur, Hist, de Napoleon, Liv. IX. ch. 7, 
Tom. II. p. 153. Labaume, Rel. de la Campagne de Russie, Liv. VII. 


26 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


in a temperature below zero, on foot, without shelter for 
the body, famishing on horse-flesh and a miserable com¬ 
pound of rye and snow-water ? With a fresh array, the 
war is upheld against new forces under the walls of 
Dresden; and as the Emperor rides over the field of 
battle — after indulging the night before in royal 
supper with the Saxon king — he sees ghastly new- 
made graves, with hands and arms projecting, stark 
and stiff, above the ground; and shortly afterwards, 
when shelter is needed for the troops, the order to 
occupy the Hospitals for the Insane is given, with the 
words, “ Turn out the mad.” 1 

Here I might close this scene of blood. But there 
is one other picture of the atrocious, though natural, 
consequences of war, occurring almost within our own 
day, that I would not omit. Let me bring to your 
mind Genoa, called the Superb, City of Palaces, dear 
to the memory of American childhood as the birth¬ 
place of Christopher Columbus, and one of the spots 
first enlightened by the morning beams of civilization, 
whose merchants were princes, and whose rich argosies, 
in those early days, introduced to Europe the choicest 
products of the East, the linen of Egypt, the spices of 
Arabia, and the silks of Samarcand. She still sits in 
queenly pride, as she sat then, — her mural crown stud¬ 
ded with towers, — her churches rich with marble floors 
and rarest pictures, — her palaces of ancient doges and 
admirals yet spared by the hand of Time, —her close 
streets thronged by a hundred thousand inhabitants, 
— at the foot of the Apennines, as they approach 
the blue and tideless waters of the Mediterranean Sea, 

J Alison, Ch. 72, Vol. IX. pp. 469, 553. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


27 


— leaning her back against their strong mountain-sides, 
overshadowed by the foliage of the fig-tree and the 
olive, while the orange and the lemon with pleasant 
perfume scent the air where reigns perpetual spring. 
Who can contemplate such a city without delight? Who 
can listen to the story of her sorrows without a pang ? 

At the opening of the present century, the armies of 
the French Republic, after dominating over Italy, were 
driven from their conquests, and compelled, with 
shrunken forces, to find shelter under Massena, within 
the walls of Genoa. Various efforts were made by the 
Austrian general, aided by bombardment from the Brit¬ 
ish fleet, to force the strong defences by assault. At 
length the city was invested by a strict blockade. All 
communication with the country was cut off, while the 
harbor was closed by the ever-wakeful British watch¬ 
dogs of war. Besides the French troops, within the 
beleaguered and unfortunate city are the peaceful, un¬ 
offending inhabitants. Provisions soon become scarce; 
scarcity sharpens into want, till fell Famine, bringing 
blindness and madness in her train, rages like an Erin- 
nys. Picture to yourselves this large population, not 
pouring out their lives in the exulting rush of battle, 
but wasting at noonday, daughter by the side of moth¬ 
er, husband by the side of wife. When grain and 
rice fail, flaxseed, millet, cocoa, and almonds are ground 
by hand-mills into flour, and even bran, baked with 
honey, is eaten, less to satisfy than to deaden hunger. 
Before the last extremities, a pound of horse-flesh is 
sold for thirty-two cents, a pound of bran for thirty 
cents, a pound of flour for one dollar and seventy-five 
cents. A single bean is soon sold for two cents, and 
a biscuit of three ounces for two dollars and a quarter, 


28 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


till finally none can be had at any price. The wretch¬ 
ed soldiers, after devouring the horses, are reduced to 
the degradation of feeding on dogs, cats, rats, and 
worms, which are eagerly hunted in cellars and 
sewers. “ Happy were now,” exclaims an Italian 
historian, “ not those who lived, but those who died! ” 
The day is dreary from hunger, — the night more 
dreary still, from hunger with delirious fancies. They 
now turn to herbs, — dock, sorrel, mallows, wild 
succory. People of every condition, with women of 
noble birth and beauty, seek upon the slope of the 
mountain within the defences those aliments which 
Nature designed solely for beasts. Scanty vegetables, 
with a scrap of cheese, are all that can be afforded to 
the sick and wounded, those sacred stipendiaries of 
human charity. In the last anguish of despair, men 
and women fill the air with groans and shrieks, some 
in spasms, convulsions, and contortions, yielding their 
expiring breath on the unpitying stones of the street, — 
alas! not more unpitying than man. Children, whom 
a dead mother’s arms had ceased to protect, orphans 
of an hour, with piercing cries, supplicate in vain 
the compassion of the passing stranger: none pity or 
aid. The sweet fountains of sympathy are all closed 
by the selfishness of individual distress. In the gen¬ 
eral agony, some precipitate themselves into the sea, 
while the more impetuous rush from the gates, and 
impale their bodies on the Austrian bayonets. Oth¬ 
ers still are driven to devour their shoes and the 
leather of their pouches ; and the horror of human flesh 
so far abates, that numbers feed like cannibals on the 
corpses about them. 1 

1 This account is drawn from the animated sketches of Botta (Storia 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


29 


At this stage the French general capitulated, claiming 
and receiving what are called “ the honors of war,” — 
but not before twenty thousand innocent persons, old 
and young, women and children, having no part or in¬ 
terest in the contest, had died the most horrible of 
deaths. The Austrian flag floated over captured Genoa 
but a brief span of time; for Bonaparte had already 
descended like an eagle from the Alps, and in nine days 
afterwards, on the plains of Marengo, shattered the 
Austrian empire in Italy. 

But wasted lands, famished cities, and slaughtered 
armies are not all that is contained in “ the purple tes¬ 
tament of bleeding war.” Every soldier is connected 
with others, as all of you, by dear ties of kindred, love, 
and friendship. He has been sternly summoned from 
the embrace of family. To him there is perhaps an 
aged mother, who fondly hoped to lean her bend¬ 
ing years on his more youthful form; perhaps a wife, 
whose life is just entwined inseparably with his, now 
condemned to wasting despair; perhaps sisters, brothers. 
As he falls on the field of war, must not all these rush 
with his blood ? But who can measure the distress that 

d’ Italia dal 1789 al 1814, Tom ni. Lib 19), Alison (History of Europe, 
Vol. IV. ch. 30), and Arnold (Modern History, Lect. IV.). The humanity 
of the last is particularly aroused to condemn this most atrocious murder of 
innocent people, and, as a sufficient remedy, he suggests a modification of 
the Laws of War, permitting non-combatants to withdraw from a block¬ 
aded town! In this way, indeed, they may be spared a languishing death by 
starvation; but they must desert firesides, pursuits, all that makes life dear, 
and become homeless exiles, — a fate little better than the former. It is 
strange that Arnold's pure soul and clear judgment did not recognize the 
truth, that the whole custom of war is unrighteous and unlawful, and that 
the horrors of this siege are its natural consequence. Laws of War! Laws 
in what is lawless! rules of wrong! There can be only one Law of IFnr,— 
that is, the great law which pronounces it unwise, unjust, and unchristian. 


30 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


radiates as from a bloody sun, penetrating innumerable 
homes ? Who can give the gauge and dimensions of 
this infinite sorrow ? Tell me, ye w r ho feel the bitter¬ 
ness of parting with dear friends and kindred, whom you 
watch tenderly till the last golden sands are run out and 
the great hour-glass is turned, what is the measure of 
your anguish ? Your friend departs, soothed by kind¬ 
ness and in the arms of Love : the soldier gasps out his 
life with no friend near, while the scowl of Hate dark¬ 
ens all that he beholds, darkens his own departing soul. 
Who can forget the anguish that fills the bosom and 
crazes the brain of Lenore, in the matchless ballad of 
Burger, when seeking in vain among returning squad¬ 
rons for her lover left dead on Prague’s ensanguined 
plain ? But every field of blood has many Lenores. All 
war is full of desolate homes, as is vividly pictured by 
a master poet of antiquity, whose verse is an argument. 

“ But through the bounds of Grecia’s land. 

Who sent her sons for Troy to part, 

See mourning, with much suffering heart, 

On each man’s threshold stand, 

On each sad hearth in Grecia’s land. 

Well may her soul with grief be rent; 

She well remembers whom she sent, 

She sees them not return: 

Instead of men, to each man’s home 
Urns and ashes only come, 

And the armor which they wore, — 

Sad relics to their native shore 

For Mars, the barterer of the lifeless clay, 

Who sells for gold the slain, 

And holds the scale , in battle's doubtful day, 

High balanced o'er the plain , 

From Ilium’s walls for men returns 
Ashes and sepulchral urns, — 

Ashes wet with many a tear, 

Sad relics of the fiery bier. 

Round the full urns the general groan 
Goes, as each their kindred own: 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


31 


One they mourn in battle strong, 

And one that ’mid the armed throng 
He sunk in glory’s slaughtering tide, 

And for another’s consort died. 

Others they mourn whose monuments stand 
By Ilium’s walls on foreign strand; 

Where they fell in beauty’s bloom, 

There they lie in hated tomb, 

Sunk beneath the massy mound, 

In eternal chambers bound.” 1 


III. 

But all these miseries are to no purpose. War is 
utterly ineffectual to secure or advance its professed 
object. The wretchedness it entails contributes to no 
end, helps to establish no right, and therefore in no re¬ 
spect determines justice between the contending nations. 

The fruitlessness and vanity of war appear in the 
great conflicts by which the world has been lacerated. 
After long struggle, where each nation inflicts and re¬ 
ceives incalculable injury, peace is gladly obtained on 
the basis of the condition before the war, known as the 
status ante helium. I* cannot illustrate this futility bet¬ 
ter than by the familiar example — humiliating to both 
countries — of our last war with Great Britain, where 
the professed object was to obtain a renunciation of 
the British claim, so defiantly asserted, to impress our 
seamen. To overturn this injustice the Arbitrament 
of War was invoked, and for nearly three years the 
whole country was under its terrible ban. Ameri¬ 
can commerce was driven from the seas; the re- 

1 Agamemnon of JSschylus: Chorus. This is from the beautiful transla¬ 
tion by John Symmons. 


32 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


sources of the land were drained by taxation; villages 
on the Canadian frontier were laid in ashes; the me¬ 
tropolis of the Republic was captured ; while distress 
was everywhere within our borders. Weary at last 
with this rude trial, the National Government appointed 
commissioners to treat for peace, with these specific in¬ 
structions : “ Your first duty will be to conclude a peace 
with Great Britain ; and you are authorized to do it, in 
case you obtain a satisfactory stipulation against im¬ 
pressment, one which shall secure under our flag protec¬ 
tion to the crew.If this encroachment of Great 

Britain is not provided against, the United States have 
appealed to arms in vain ” 1 Afterwards, finding small 
chance of extorting from Great Britain a relinquishment 
of the unrighteous claim, and foreseeing from the invet¬ 
erate prosecution of the war only an accumulation of 
calamities, the National Government directed the nego¬ 
tiators, in concluding a treaty, to “ omit any stipulation 
on the subject of impressment” 2 These instructions were 
obeyed, and the treaty that restored to us once more 
the blessings of peace, so rashly cast away, but now 
hailed with intoxication of joy, contained no allusion 
to impressment, nor did it provide for the surrender 
of a single American sailor detained in the British 
navy. Thus, by the confession of our own Govern¬ 
ment, “the United States had appealed to arms in 
vain .” 1 2 3 These important words are not mine; they 
are words of the country. 


1 Mr. Monroe to Commissioners, April 15, 1813: American State Papers, 
Vol. VH1. pp. 577,578. 

2 Mr. Monroe to Commissioners, June 27, 1814 : Ibid., Vol. VIII. p. 593. 

3 Mr. Jefferson, in more than one letter, declares the peace an armistice 
only , “ because no security is provided against the impressment of our 
seamen.” — Letter to Crawford, Feb. 11,1815; to Lafayette, Feb. 14, 1815; 
Works, Vol. VI. pp. 420, 427. 



THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 33 

All this is the natural result of an appeal to war for 
the determination of justice. Justice implies the exer¬ 
cise of the judgment. Now war not only supersedes 
the judgment, but delivers over the pending question to 
superiority of force , or to chance. 

Superior force may end in conquest; this is the nat¬ 
ural consequence; but it cannot adjudicate any right. 
We expose the absurdity of its arbitrament, when, by a 
familiar phrase of sarcasm, we deride the right of the 
strongest , — excluding, of course, all idea of right, ex¬ 
cept that of the lion as he springs upon a weaker beast, 
of the wolf as he tears in pieces the lamb, of the vul¬ 
ture as he devours the dove. The grossest spirits must 
admit that this is not justice. 

But the battle is not always to the strong. Superior¬ 
ity of force is often checked by the proverbial contin¬ 
gencies of war. Especially are such contingencies re¬ 
vealed in rankest absurdity, where nations, as is the 
acknowledged custom, without regard to their respective 
forces, whether weaker or stronger, voluntarily appeal 
to this mad umpirage. Who beforehand can measure 
the currents of the heady fight ? In common language, 
we confess the “chances ” of battle; and soldiers devoted 
to this harsh vocation yet call it a “ game.” The Great 
Captain of our age, who seemed to drag victory at his 
chariot-wheels, in a formal address to his officers, on 
entering Bussia, says, “ In war, fortune has an equal 
share with ability in success.” 1 The famous victory of 
Marengo, accident of an accident, wrested unexpectedly 
at close of day from a foe at an earlier hour success¬ 
ful, taught him the uncertainty of war. Afterwards, 
in bitterness of spirit, when his immense forces were 


l Alison, Ch. 67, Vol. VIII. p. 815. 


34 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


shivered, and his triumphant eagles driven back with 
broken wing, he exclaimed, in that remarkable con¬ 
versation recorded by his secretary, Fain,— “Well, this 
is War ! High in the morning, — low enough at night! 
From a triumph to a fall is often but a step.” 1 The 
same sentiment is repeated by the military historian of 
the Peninsular campaigns, when he says, “ Fortune al¬ 
ways asserts her supremacy in war; and often from 
a slight mistake such disastrous consequences flow, 
that, in every age and every nation, the uncertainty 
of arms has been proverbial.” 2 And again, in another 
place, considering the conduct of Wellington, the same 
military historian, who is an unquestionable authority, 
confesses, “ A few hours’ delay, an accident, a turn of 
fortune, and he would have been foiled. Ay! but this 
is War, always dangerous and uncertain , an ever-rolling 
wheel, and armed with scythes.” 3 And will intelligent 
man look for justice to an ever-rolling wheel armed 
with scythes ? 

Chance is written on every battle-field. Discerned 
less in the conflict of large masses than in that of in¬ 
dividuals, it is equally present in both. How capri¬ 
ciously the wheel turned when the fortunes of Eome 
were staked on the combat between the Horatii and 
Curiatii! — and who, at one time, augured that the 
single Horatius, with two slain brothers on the field, 
would overpower the three living enemies ? But this 
is not alone. In all the combats of history, involving 
the fate of individuals or nations, we learn to revolt at 
the frenzy which carries questions of property, freedom, 
or life to a judgment so uncertain and senseless. The 
humorous poet fitly exposes its hazards, when he says, — 

1 Alison, Ch. 72, Vol. IX. p. 497. 

2 Napier, Book XXIV. ch. 6, Vol. VI. p. 687. 

s Ibid., Book XVI. ch. 7, Vol. IV. p. 476. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


35 


“ that a turnstile is more certain 

Than, in events of war, Dame Fortune .” 1 

During the early modern centuries, and especially in 
the moral night of the Dark Ages, the practice prevailed 
extensively throughout Europe of invoking this adju¬ 
dication for controversies, whether of individuals or 
communities. I do not dwell on the custom of Private 
War, though it aptly illustrates the subject, stopping 
merely to echo that joy which, in a time of igno¬ 
rance, before this arbitrament yielded gradually to the 
ordinances of monarchs and an advancing civiliza¬ 
tion, hailed its temporary suspension as The Truce of 
God. But this beautiful term, most suggestive, and his¬ 
torically important, cannot pass without the attention 
which belongs to it. Such a truce is still an example, 
and also an argument; but it is for nations. Here is 
something to be imitated ; and here also is an appeal to 
the reason. If individuals or communities once rec¬ 
ognized the Truce of God, why not again ? And why 
may not its benediction descend upon nations also ? Its 
origin goes back to the darkest night. It was in 1032 
that the Bishop of Aquitaine announced the appear¬ 
ance of an angel with a message from Heaven, engag¬ 
ing men to cease from war and be reconciled. The 
people, already softened by calamity and disposed to 
supernatural impressions, hearkened to the sublime mes¬ 
sage, and consented. From sunset Thursday to sunrise 
Monday each week, also during Advent and Lent, and 
at the great festivals, all effusion of blood was inter¬ 
dicted, and no man could molest his adversary. Women, 
children, travellers, merchants, laborers, were assured 
perpetual peace. Every church was made an asylum, 

1 Hudibras, Part I. Canto 3, vv. 23, 24. 


36 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


and, by happy association, the plough also sheltered 
from peril all who came to it. This respite, justly 
regarded as marvellous, was hailed as the Truce of God. 
Beginning in one neighborhood, it was piously extended 
until it embraced the whole kingdom, and then, by the 
authority of the Pope, became coextensive with Chris¬ 
tendom, while those who violated it were put under 
solemn ban. As these things passed, bishops lifted their 
crosses, and the people in their gladness cried, Peace ! 
Peace .! 1 Originally too limited in operation and too 
short in duration, the Truce of God must again be pro¬ 
claimed for all places and all times, — proclaimed to all 
mankind and all nations, without distinction of person 
or calling, on all days of the week, without distinction 
of sacred days or festivals, and with one universal 
asylum, not merely the church and the plough, but 
every place and thing. 

From Private Wars, whose best lesson is the Truce of 
God, by which for a time they were hushed, I come to 
the Judicial Combat , or Trial by Battle, where, as in a 
mirror, we behold the barbarism of War, without truce 
of any kind. Trial by Battle was a formal and legiti¬ 
mate mode of deciding controversies, principally be¬ 
tween individuals. Like other ordeals, by walking 
barefoot and blindfold among burning ploughshares, 
by holding hot iron, by dipping the hand in hot water 
or hot oil, and like the great Ordeal of War, it was 
a presumptuous appeal to Providence, under the ap¬ 
prehension and hope that Heaven would give the vic¬ 
tory to him who had the right. Its object was the 

1 Robertson, Hist, of Charles V., Vol. I. note 21. Semichon, La Paix et 
la Tr6ve de Dieu, Tom. II. pp. 35, 53. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


37 


very object of War, — the determination of Justice. 
It was sanctioned by Municipal Law as an arbitrament 
for individuals, as War, to the scandal of civilization 
is still sanctioned by International Law as an arbitra¬ 
ment for nations. “ Men,” says the brilliant French¬ 
man, Montesquieu, “subject even their prejudices to 
rules ” ; and Trial by Battle, which he does not hesitate 
to denounce as a “monstrous usage,” was surrounded by 
artificial regulations of multifarious detail, constituting 
an extensive system, determining how and when it 
should be waged, as War is surrounded by a complex 
code, known as the Laws of War. “Nothing,” says 
Montesquieu again, “could be more contrary to good 
sense, but, once established, it was executed with a cer¬ 
tain prudence,”—which is equally true of War. No 
battle-field for an army is selected with more care than 
was the field for Trial by Battle. An open space in the 
neighborhood of a church was often reserved for this 
purpose. At the famous Abbey of Saint-Germain-des- 
Pres, in Paris, there was a tribune for the judges, over¬ 
looking the adjoining meadow, which served for the 
field. 1 The combat was inaugurated by a solemn mass, 
according to a form still preserved, Missa pro Duello, so 
that, in ceremonial and sanction, as in the field, the 
Church was constantly present. Champions were hired, 
as soldiers now. 2 

No question was too sacred, grave, or recondite for this 


1 Sismondi, Hist, des Fran<?ais, Part. V. ch. 9, Tom. X. p. 514. 

2 The pivotal character of Trial by Battle, as an illustration of War, will 
justify a reference to the modern authorities, among which are Robertson, 
who treats it with perspicuity and fulness (History of Charles V, Vol. I. 
note 22), — Hallam, always instructive (Middle Ages, Vol. I. Chap. II. pt. 2), 
— Blackstone, always clear (Commentaries, Book III. ch. 22, sec. 5, and 
Book IV. ch. 27, sec. 3), — Montesquieu, who casts upon it a flood of 


38 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


tribunal. In France, the title of an Abbey to a neigh¬ 
boring church was decided by it; and an Emperor of 
Germany, according to a faithful ecclesiastic, “ desir¬ 
ous of dealing honorably with his people and nobles ” 
(mark here the standard of honor !), waived the judgment 
of the court on a grave question of law concerning the 
descent of property, and referred it to champions. Hu¬ 
man folly did not stop here. In Spain, a subtile point 
of theology was submitted to the same determination . 1 
But Trial by Battle was not confined to particular coun¬ 
tries or to rare occasions. It prevailed everywhere in 
Europe, superseding in many places all other ordeals, 
and even Trials by Proofs , while it extended not only to 
criminal matters, but to questions of property. In Or¬ 
leans it had an exceptional limitation, being denied in 
civil matters where the amount did not exceed five sous . 2 

Like War in our day, its justice and fitness as an 
arbitrament were early doubted or condemned. Liut- 
prand, a king, of the Lombards, during that middle period 
neither ancient nor modern, in a law bearing date A. D. 


light (Esprit des Lois, Liv. XXVIII. ch. 18-33),— Sismondi, humane and 
interesting (Histoire des Fran^ais, Part. IV. ch. 11, Tom. Vni. pp. 
72 - 78), Guizot, in a work of remarkable historic beauty, more grave than 
Montesquieu, and enlightened by a better philosophy (Histoire de la Civili¬ 
sation en France depuis la Chute de l’Empire Romani, Tom. IV. pp. 89,149 - 
166), Wheaton, our learned countryman (History of the Northmen, Chap. 
Ill. and XII.), — also the two volumes of Millingen’s History of Duelling, if 
so loose a compend deserves a place in this list. All these, describing 
Trial by Battle, testify against War. I cannot conceal that so great an au¬ 
thority as Selden, a most enlightened jurist of the Long Parliament, argues 
the lawfulness of the Duel from the lawfulness of War. After setting 
forth that “ a duel may be granted in some cases by the law of England,” 
he asks, “ But whether is this lawful? ” and then answers, “ If you grant 
any war lawful , I make no doubt but to convince it.” (Table-Talk: Duel) 
But if the Duel be unlawful, how then with War? 

1 Robertson, Hist. Charles V., Vol. I note 22. 

2 Montesquieu, Esprit des Lois, Liv. XXVIII. ch. 19. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


39 


724, declares his distrust of it as a mode of determin¬ 
ing justice; but the monarch is compelled to add, that, 
considering the custom of his Lombard people, he can¬ 
not forbid the impious law. His words deserve em¬ 
phatic mention: “ Propter consuetudinem gentis nostrce 
Langobardorum legem impiam vetare non possumus .” 1 
The appropriate epithet by which he branded Trial by 
Battle is the important bequest of the royal Lombard to 
a distant posterity. For this the lawgiver will be cher¬ 
ished with grateful regard in the annals of civilization. 

This custom received another blow from Rome. In 
the latter part of the thirteenth century, Don Pedro 
of Aragon, after exchanging letters of defiance with 
Charles of Anjou, proposed a personal combat, which 
was accepted, on condition that Sicily should be the 
prize of success. Each called down upon himself all 
the vengeance of Heaven, and the last dishonor, if, at 
the appointed time, he failed to appear before the Sen¬ 
eschal of Aquitaine, or, in case of defeat, refused to 
consign Sicily undisturbed to the victor. While they 
were preparing for the lists, the Pope, Martin the 
Fourth, protested with all his might against this new 
Trial by Battle, which staked the sovereignty of a 
kingdom, a feudatory of the Holy See, on a wild stroke 
of chance. By a papal bull, dated at Civita Yecchia, 
April 5th, 1283, he threatened excommunication to 
either of the princes who should proceed to a combat 
which he pronounced criminal and abominable. By a 
letter of the same date, the Pope announced to Edward 
the First of England, Duke of Aquitaine, the agreement 
of the two princes, which he most earnestly declared to 

1 Liutprandi Leges, Lib. VI. cap. 65: Muratori, Rerum Italic. Script,, 
Tom. I. pars 2, p. 74. 


40 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


be full of indecency and rashness, hostile to the con¬ 
cord of Christendom, and reckless of Christian blood; 
and he urged upon the English monarch all possible 
effort to prevent the combat, — menacing him with ex- 
communication, and his territories with interdict, if it 
should take place. Edward refusing to guaranty the 
safety of the combatants in Aquitaine, the parties re¬ 
tired without consummating their duel. 1 The judgment 
of the Holy See, which thus accomplished its immedi¬ 
ate object, though not in terms directed to the suppres¬ 
sion of the custom , remains, nevertheless, from its peculiar 
energy, a perpetual testimony against Trial by Battle. 

To a monarch of France belongs the honor of first 
interposing the royal authority for the entire suppres¬ 
sion within his jurisdiction of this impious custom , so 
universally adopted, so dear to the nobility, and so pro¬ 
foundly rooted in the institutions of the Feudal Age. 
And here let me pause with reverence as I pronounce the 
name of St. Louis, a prince whose unenlightened errors 
may find easy condemnation in an age of larger tolera¬ 
tion and wider knowledge, but whose firm and upright 
soul, exalted sense of justice, fatherly regard for the 
happiness of his people, respect for the rights of others, 
conscience void of offence toward God or man, make 
him foremost among Christian rulers, and the highest 
example for Christian prince or Christian people, — in 
one word, a model of True Greatness. He was of 
angelic conscience, subjecting whatever he did to the 
single and exclusive test of moral rectitude, disregard¬ 
ing every consideration of worldly advantage, all fear 
of worldly consequences. 

1 Sismondi, Hist, des Frar^ais, Part. IV. ch. 15, Tom. VIII. pp. 338 - 347. 


THE TEUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


41 


His soul, thus tremblingly sensitive to right, was 
shocked at the judicial combat. It was a sin, in his 
sight, thus to tempt God, by demanding of him a mira¬ 
cle, whenever judgment was pronounced. From these 
intimate convictions sprang a royal ordinance, promul¬ 
gated first at a Parliament assembled in 1260: “ We 
forbid to all persons throughout our dominions the Trial 
by Battle; .... and instead of battles, we establish 
proofs by witnesses . And these battles we 

ABOLISH IN OUR DOMINIONS FOREVER.” 1 

Such were the restraints on the royal authority, that 
this beneficent ordinance was confined in operation to 
the demesnes of the king, not embracing those of the 
barons and feudatories. But where the power of the 
sovereign did not reach, there he labored by example, 
influence, and express intercession, — treating with the 
great vassals, and inducing many to renounce this un¬ 
natural usage. Though for years later it continued to 
vex parts of France, its overthrow commenced with the 
Ordinance of St. Louis. 

Honor and blessings attend this truly Christian king, 
who submitted all his actions to the Heaven-descended 
sentiment of Duty, — who began a long and illustrious 
reign by renouncing and restoring conquests of his pre¬ 
decessor, saying to those about him, whose souls did not 
ascend to his heights, “ I know that the predecessors of 
the King of England lost altogether by right the con¬ 
quest which I hold; and the land which I give him 
I do not give because I am bound to him or his heirs, 
but to put love between my children and his children, who 
are cousins-german; and it seems to me that what I 

1 Guizot, Hist, de la Civilisation en France, Le<jon 14, Vol. IV. pp. 
162 - 164. 



42 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


thus give I employ to good purpose.” 1 Honor to him 
who never by force or cunning grasped what was not 
his own, — who sought no advantage from the turmoil 
and dissension of his neighbors, — who, first of Chris¬ 
tian princes, rebuked the Spirit of War, saying to those 
who would have him profit by the strifes of others, 
“ Blessed are the peacemakers,” 2 — who, by an immor¬ 
tal ordinance, abolished Trial by Battle throughout his 
dominions, — who extended equal justice to all, whether 
his own people or his neighbors, and in the extremity of 
his last illness, before the walls of Tunis, under a burn¬ 
ing African sun, among the bequests of his spirit, en¬ 
joined on his son and successor, “ in maintaining justice, 
to be inflexible and loyal, turning neither to the right 
hand nor to the left .” 3 

To condemn Trial by Battle no longer requires the 
sagacity above his age of the Lombard monarch, or 
the intrepid judgment of the Sovereign Pontiff, or the 
ecstatic soul of St. Louis. An incident of history, as 
curious as it is authentic, illustrates this point, and 
shows the certain progress of opinion; and this brings 
me to England, where this trial was an undoubted part of 
the early Common Law, with peculiar ceremonies sanc¬ 
tioned by the judges robed in scarlet. The learned 
Selden, not content with tracing its origin, and exhib¬ 
iting its forms, with the oath of the duellist, “ As God me 
help, and his saints of Paradise,” shows also the copart¬ 
nership of the Church through its liturgy appointing 
prayers for the occasion . 4 For some time it was the 

1 Guizot, Hist, de la Civilisation en France, Le<?on 14, Vol. IV. p. 151. 

2 “ Benoist soient twit li apaiseur. ”—Joinville, p. 143. 

8 Sismondi, Hist, des Franpais, Part. IV. ch. 12, Tom. VIII. p. 196. 

4 Selden, The Duello, or Single Combat, from Antiquity derived into this 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


43 


only mode of trying a writ of right, by which the title 
to real property was determined, and the fines from 
the numerous cases formed no inconsiderable portion of 
the King’s revenue . 1 It was partially restrained by 
Henry the Second, under the advice of his chief jus¬ 
ticiary, the ancient law-writer, Glanville, substituting 
the Grand Assize as an alternative, on the trial of a 
writ of right; and the reason assigned for this substitu¬ 
tion was the uncertainty of the Duel, so that after many 
and long delays justice was scarcely obtained, in con¬ 
trast with the other trial, which was more convenient 
and swift . 2 At a later day, Trial by Battle was re¬ 
buked by Elizabeth, who interposed to compel the par¬ 
ties to a composition, — although, for the sake of their 
honor, as it was called, the lists were marked out and 
all the preliminary forms observed with much cere¬ 
mony . 3 It was awarded under Charles the First, and 
the proceeding went so far that a day was proclaimed 
for the combatants to appear with spear, long sword, 
short sword, and dagger, when the duel was adjourned 
from time to time, and at last the king compelled 
an accommodation without bloodshed . 4 Though fallen 


Kingdom of England; also, Table Talk, Duel: Works, Vol. III. col. 49-84, 
2027. 

1 Madox, Hist, of Exchequer, Vol. I. p. 349. 

2 “ Est autem magna Assisa regale quoddam beneficium, .... quo vitse 
hominum et status integritati tam salubritel*consulitur, ut in jure quod quis 
in libero soli tenemento possidet retinendo, duelli casum declinare possunt 

homines ambiguum.Jus enim, quod post multas et longas dilationes vix 

evincitur per duellum , per beneficium istius constitutionis commodius et ac- 
celeratius expeditur.” (Glanville, Tractatus de Legibus et Consuetudinibus 
Regni Anglise, Lib. II. cap. 7.) These pointed words are precisely applica¬ 
ble to our Arbitrament of War, with its many and long delays, so little 
productive of justice. 

8 Robertson, Hist. Charles V., Vol. I. note 22. 

4 Proceedings in the Court of Chivalry, on an Appeal of High Treason by 



44 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


into desuetude, quietly overruled by the enlightened 
sense of successive generations, yet, to the disgrace of 
English jurisprudence, it was not legislatively abol¬ 
ished till near our own day,— as late as 1819,— 
the right to it having been openly claimed in West¬ 
minster Hall only two years previous. An ignorant 
man, charged with murder, — whose name, Abraham 
Thornton, is necessarily connected with the history of 
this monstrous usage, — being proceeded against by 
the ancient process of appeal, pleaded, when brought 
into court, as follows : “Hot guilty; and I am ready to 
defend the same by my body ”: and thereupon taking 
off his glove, he threw it upon the floor. The appellant, 
not choosing to accept this challenge, abandoned his 
proceedings. The bench, the bar, and the whole king¬ 
dom were startled by the infamy ; and at the next ses¬ 
sion of Parliament Trial by Battle was abolished in 
England. In the debate on this subject, the Attorney- 
General remarked, in appropriate terms, that, “ if the 
appellant had persevered in the Trial by Battle, he 
had no doubt the legislature would have felt it their 
imperious duty at once to interfere, and pass an ex post 
facto laio to prevent so degrading a spectacle from taking 
place !' 1 

These words evince the disgust which Trial by Bat¬ 
tle excites in our day. Its folly and wickedness are con¬ 
spicuous to all. Beverting to that early period in which 
it prevailed, our minds are impressed by the general bar¬ 
barism ; we recoil with horror from the awful subjection 
of justice to brute force, — from the impious profanation 

Donald Lord Rea against Mr. David Ramsay, 7 Cha. I., 1631 : Hargrave’s 
State Trials, Vol. XI. pp. 124-131. 

1 Hansard, Pari. Debates, XXXIX. 1104. Blackstone, Com., III. 337 ; 
Chitty’s note. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 45 

of God in deeming him present at these outrages,— 
from the moral degradation out of which they sprang, 
and which they perpetuated; we enrobe ourselves in 
self-complacent virtue, and thank God that we are not 
as these men, — that ours is an age of light, while theirs 
was an age of darkness ! 


But remember, fellow-citizens, that this criminal and 
impious custom, which all condemn in the case of in¬ 
dividuals, is openly avowed by our own country, and 
by other countries of the great Christian Federation, 
nay, that it is expressly established by International 
Law, as the proper mode of determining justice between 
nations, — while the feats of hardihood by which it is 
waged, and the triumphs of its fields, are exalted be¬ 
yond all other labors, whether of learning, industry, or 
benevolence, as the well-spring of Glory. Alas! upon 
our own heads be the judgment of barbarism which we 
pronounce upon those that have gone before ! At this 
moment, in this period of light, while to the contented 
souls of many the noonday sun of civilization seems to 
be standing still in the heavens, as upon Gibeon, the 
dealings between nations are still governed by the odious 
rules of brute violence which once predominated be¬ 
tween individuals. The Dark Ages have not passed 
away; Erebus and black Night, born of Chaos, still 
brood over the earth; nor can we hail the clear day, 
until the hearts of nations are touched, as the hearts of 
individual men, and all acknowledge one and the same 
Law of Right. 

What has taught you, 0 man! thus to find glory in 
an act, performed by a nation, which you condemn as a 
crime or a barbarism, when committed by an individual ? 


46 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


In what vain conceit of wisdom and virtue do you find 
this incongruous morality ? Where is it declared that 
God, who is no respecter of persons, is a respecter of 
multitudes ? Whence do you draw these partial laws 
of an impartial God ? Man is immortal; but Nations 
are mortal. Man has a higher destiny than Nations. 
Can Nations be less amenable to the supreme moral 
law ? Each individual is an atom of the mass. Must 
not the mass, in its conscience, be like the individuals of 
which it is composed ? Shall the mass, in relations with 
other masses, do what individuals in relations with each 
other may not do ? As in the physical creation, so in 
the moral, there is but one rule for the individual and 
the mass. It was the lofty discovery of Newton, that 
the simple law which determines the fall of an ap¬ 
ple prevails everywhere throughout the Universe,— 
ruling each particle in reference to every other particle, 
large or small, — reaching from earth to heaven, and con¬ 
trolling the infinite motions of the spheres. So, with 
equal scope, another simple law, the Law of Right, 
which binds the individual, binds also two or three when 
gathered together, — binds conventions and congrega¬ 
tions of men, — binds villages, towns, and cities, — 
binds states, nations, and races, — clasps the whole hu¬ 
man family in its sevenfold embrace; nay, more, beyond 

“ the flaming bounds of place and time, 

The living throne, the sapphire blaze,” 

it binds the angels of Heaven, Cherubim, full of knowl¬ 
edge, Seraphim, full of love; above all, it binds, in self- 
imposed bonds, a just and omnipotent God. This is the 
law of which the ancient poet sings, as Queen alike of 
mortals and immortals. It is of this, anu not of any 
earthly law, that Hooker speaks in that magnificent pe- 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


47 


riod which sounds like an anthem: “ Of Law there can 
be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom 
of God, her voice the harmony of the world: all things 
in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as 
feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from 
her power: both angels and men, and creatures of what 
condition soever, though each in different sort and man¬ 
ner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the 
mother of their peace and joy.” Often quoted, and 
justly admired, sometimes as the finest sentence of our 
English speech, this grand declaration cannot be more 
fitly invoked than to condemn the pretence of one 
law for the individual and another for the nation. 

Stripped of all delusive apology, and tried by that 
comprehensive law under which nations are set to the 
bar like common men, War falls from glory into barbar¬ 
ous guilt, taking its place among bloody transgressions, 
while its flaming honors are turned into shame. Pain¬ 
ful to existing prejudice as this may be, we must learn 
to abhor it, as we abhor similar transgressions by vulgar 
offender. Every word of reprobation which the enlight¬ 
ened conscience now fastens upon the savage combatant 
in Trial by Battle, or which it applies to the unhappy 
being who in murderous duel takes the life of his 
fellow-man, belongs also to the nation that appeals to 
War. Amidst the thunders of Sinai God declared, 
“ Thou shalt not kill ” ; and the voice of these thunders, 
with this commandment, is prolonged to our own day in 
the echoes of Christian churches. What mortal shall 
restrict the application of these words ? Who on earth 
is empowered to vary or abridge the commandments of 
God ? Who shall presume to declare that this injunc¬ 
tion was directed, not to nations, but to individuals 


48 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


only, — not to many, but to one only, — that one man 
shall not kill, but that many may, — that one man shall 
not slay in Duel, but that a nation may slay a multi¬ 
tude in the duel of War, — that each individual is 
forbidden to destroy the life of a single human being, 
but that a nation is not forbidden to cut off* by the 
sword a whole people ? We are struck with horror, and 
our hair stands on end, at the report of a single murder; 
we think of the soul hurried to final account; we hunt 
the murderer; and Government puts forth its energies to 
secure his punishment. Viewed in the unclouded light 
of Truth, what is War but organized murder, — murder 
of malice aforethought, — in cold blood, — under sanc¬ 
tions of impious law , — through the operation of an ex¬ 
tensive machinery of crime, — with innumerable hands, 
— at incalculable cost of money, — by subtle contriv¬ 
ances of cunning and skill, — or amidst the fiendish 
atrocities of the savage, brutal assault ? 

By another commandment, not less solemn, it is de¬ 
clared, “ Thou shalt not steal ” ; and then again there is 
another forbidding to covet what belongs to others: 
but all this is done by War, which is stealing and cove¬ 
tousness organized by International Law. The Scythian, 
undisturbed by the illusion of military glory, snatched 
a phrase of justice from an acknowledged criminal, when 
he called Alexander “ the greatest robber in the world.” 
And the Boman satirist, filled with similar truth, in 
pungent words touched to the quick that flagrant, un¬ 
blushing injustice which dooms to condign punishment 
the very guilt that in another sphere and on a grander 
scale is hailed with acclamation : — 

“ Ille crucera sceleris pretium tulit, hie diadema.” 1 
1 Juvenal, Sat. XIII. 105. The same judgment is pronounced by Fenelon 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


49 


While condemning the ordinary malefactor, mankind, 
blind to the real character of War, may yet a little 
longer crown the giant actor with glory; a generous 
posterity may pardon to unconscious barbarism the 
atrocities which have been waged; but the custom, 
as organized by existing law, cannot escape the un¬ 
erring judgment of reason and religion. The outrages, 
which, under most solemn sanctions, it permits and in¬ 
vokes for professed purposes of justice, cannot be au¬ 
thorized by any human power; and they must rise in 
overwhelming judgment, not only against those who 
wield the weapons of Battle, but more still against all 
who uphold its monstrous Arbitrament. 

When, 0, when shall the St. Louis of the Nations 
arise, — Christian ruler or Christian people, — who, in 
the Spirit of True Greatness, shall proclaim, that hence¬ 
forward forever the great Trial by Battle shall cease, — 
that “ these battles ” shall be abolished throughout the 
Commonwealth of Civilization, — that a spectacle so de¬ 
grading shall never be allowed again to take place, — 
and that it is the duty of nations, involving the high¬ 
est and wisest policy, to establish love between each 
other, and, in all respects, at all times, with all persons, 
whether their own people or the people of other lands, 
to be governed by the sacred Law of Right , as between 
man and man ? 


IV. 

I am now brought to review the obstacles encountered 
by those who, according to the injunction of St. Augus- 

in his counsels to royalty, entitled, Examen de Conscience sur les Devoirs de 
la Royaute. 


50 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


tine, would make war on War , and slay it with the 
word. To some of these obstacles I alluded at the 
beginning, especially the warlike literature, by which 
the character is formed. The world has supped so full 
with battles, that its modes of thought and many of its 
rules of conduct are incarnadined with blood, as the 
bones of swine, feeding on madder, are said to become 
red. Not to be tempted by this theme, I hasten on to 
expose in succession those various prejudices so pow¬ 
erful still in keeping alive the custom of War, including 
that greatest prejudice, mighty parent of an infinite 
brood, at whose unreasoning behest untold sums are 
absorbed in Preparations for War. 

1. One of the most important is the prejudice from 
belief in its necessity. When War is called a necessity, 
it is meant, of course, that its object can be attained in 
no other way. Now I think it has already appeared, 
with distinctness approaching demonstration, that the 
professed object of War, which is justice between na¬ 
tions, is in no respect promoted by War, — that force 
is not justice, nor in any way conducive to justice, — 
that the eagles of victory are the emblems of success¬ 
ful force only, and not of established right. Justice is 
obtained solely by the exercise of reason and judgment; 
but these are silent in the din of arms. Justice is with¬ 
out passion; but War lets loose all the worst passions, 
while “ Chance, high arbiter, more embroils the fray.” 
The age is gone when a nation within the enchanted 
circle of civilization could make war upon its neigh¬ 
bors for any declared purpose of booty or vengeance. 
It does “ nought in hate, but all in honor ” Such is the 
present rule. Professions of tenderness mingle with 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS 


51 


the first mutterings of strife. As if conscience-struck 
at the criminal abyss into which they are plunging, each 
of the great litigants seeks to fix upon the other some 
charge of hostile aggression, or to set up the excuse 
of defending some asserted right, some Texas, some 
Oregon. Each, like Pontius Pilate, vainly washes its 
hands of innocent blood, and straightway allows a 
crime at which the whole heavens are darkened, and 
two kindred countries are severed, as the vail of the 
Temple was rent in twain. 

Proper modes for the determination of international 
disputes are Negotiation, Mediation, Arbitration, and a 
Congress of Nations, — all practicable, and calculated 
to secure peaceful justice. Under existing Law of Na¬ 
tions these may be employed at any time. But the very 
law sanctioning War may be changed , as regards two or 
more nations by treaty between them, and as regards 
the body of nations by general consent. If nations 
can agree in solemn provisions of International Law 
to establish War as Arbiter of Justice, they can also 
agree to abolish this arbitrament, and to establish peace¬ 
ful substitutes, — precisely as similar substitutes are 
established by Municipal Law to determine contro¬ 
versies among individuals. A system of Arbitration 
may be instituted, or a Congress of' Nations, charged 
with the high duty of organizing an Ultimate Tribunal , 
instead of “ these battles.” To do this, the will only is 
required. 

Let it not be said, then, that war is a necessity; and 
may our country aspire to the glory of taking the lead 
in disowning the barbarous system of Lynch Law 
among nations, while it proclaims peaceful substitutes ! 
Such a glory, unlike the earthly fame of battle, will be 


52 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


immortal as the stars, dropping perpetual light upon 
the souls of men. 

2. Another prejudice is founded on the practice of 
nations , past and present. There is no crime or enor¬ 
mity in morals which may not find the support of hu¬ 
man example, often on an extended scale. But it will 
not he urged in our day that we are to look for a stand¬ 
ard of duty in the conduct of vain, fallible, mistaken 
man. Not by any subtile alchemy can man transmute 
Wrong into Right. Because War is according to the 
practice of the world, it does not follow that it is right. 
For ages the world worshipped false gods, — not less 
false because all bowed before them. At this moment 
the prevailing numbers of mankind are heathen ; but 
heathenism is not therefore true. Once it was the 
practice of nations to slaughter prisoners of war; but 
the Spirit of War recoils now from this bloody sacri¬ 
fice. By a perverse morality in Sparta, theft, instead 
of being a crime, was, like War, dignified into an art 
and accomplishment; like War, it was admitted into 
the system of youthful education ; and, like War, it was 
illustrated by an instance of unconquerable firmness, 
barbaric counterfeit of virtue. The Spartan youth, 
with the stolen fox beneath his robe eating into his 
bowels, is an example of fortitude not unlike that so 
often admired in the soldier. Other illustrations crowd 
upon the mind; but I will not dwell upon them. We 
turn with disgust from Spartan cruelty and the wolves 
of Taygetus, — from the awful cannibalism of the 
Feejee Islands,— from the profane rites of innumer¬ 
able savages, — from the crushing Juggernaut, — from 
the Hindoo widow on her funeral pyre, — from the 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


53 


Indian dancing at the stake; but had not all these, like 
War, the sanction of established usage ? 

Often is it said that we need not be wiser than our 
fathers. Rather strive to excel our fathers. What in 
them was good imitate; but do not bind ourselves, as 
in chains of Fate, by their imperfect example. In all 
modesty be it said, we have lived to little purpose, if we 
are not wiser than the generations that have gone before. 
It is the exalted distinction of man that he is progres¬ 
sive,— that his reason is not merely the reason of a 
single human being, but that of the whole human race, 
in all ages from which knowledge has descended, in all 
lands from which it has been borne away. We are the 
heirs to an inheritance grandly accumulating from gen¬ 
eration to generation, with the superadded products of 
other lands. The child at his mother’s knee is now 
taught the orbits of the heavenly bodies, 

“ Where worlds on worlds compose one Universe,” 

the nature of this globe, the character of the tribes by 
which it is, covered, and the geography of countries, to 
an extent far beyond the ken of the most learned in 
other days. It is true, therefore, that antiquity is the 
real infancy of man. Then is he immature, ignorant, 
wayward, selfish, childish, finding his chief happiness in 
lowest pleasures, unconscious of the higher. The ani¬ 
mal reigns supreme, and he seeks contest, war, blood. 
Already he has lived through infancy and childhood. 
Reason and the kindlier virtues, repudiating and ab¬ 
horring force, now bear sway. The time has come 
for temperance, moderation, peace. We are the true 
ancients. The single lock on the battered forehead of 
old Time is thinner now than when our fathers at- 


54 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


tempted to grasp it; the hour-glass has been turned 
often since ; the scythe is heavier laden with the work 
of death. 

Let us not, then, take for a lamp to our feet the 
feeble taper that glimmers from the sepulchre of the 
Past. Eather hail that ever-burning light above, in 
whose beams is the brightness of noonday. 

3. There is a topic which I approach with diffidence, 
but in the spirit of frankness. It is the influence which 
War, though condemned by Christ, has derived from 
the Christian Church. When Constantine, on one of 
his marches, at the head of his army, beheld the lumi¬ 
nous trophy of the cross in the sky, right above the 
meridian sun, inscribed with the words, By this conquer, 
had his soul been penetrated by the true spirit of Him 
whose precious symbol it was, he would have found no 
inspiration to the spear and the sword. He would have 
received the lesson of self-sacrifice as from the lips of 
the Saviour, and learned that by no earthly weapon of 
battle can true victory be won. The pride of conquest 
would have been rebuked, and the bawble sceptre have 
fallen from his hands. By this conquer: by patience, 
suffering, forgiveness of evil, by all those virtues of 
which the cross is the affecting token, conquer, and the 
victory shall be greater than any in the annals of Eo- 
man conquest; it may not yet find a place in the 
records of man, but it will appear in the register of 
everlasting life. 

The Christian Church, after the early centuries, failed 
to discern the peculiar spiritual beauty of the faith it 
professed. Like Constantine, it found new incentive to 
War in the religion of Peace; and such is its character, 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


55 


even in our own day. The Pope of Rome, the asserted 
head of the Church, Vicegerent of Christ upon earth, 
whose seal is a fisherman, on whose banner is a Lamb 
before the Holy Cross, assumed the command of armies, 
mingling the thunders of Battle with the thunders of 
the Vatican. The dagger projecting from the sacred 
vestments of De Retz, while still an archbishop, was 
justly derided by the Parisian crowd as “the Arch¬ 
bishop’s breviary.” We read of mitred prelates in 
armor of proof, and seem still to catch the clink of 
the golden spurs of bishops in the streets of Co¬ 
logne. The sword of knighthood was consecrated by 
the Church, and priests were expert masters in mili¬ 
tary exercises. I have seen at the gates of the Papal 
Palace in Rome a constant guard of Swiss soldiers; I 
have seen, too, in our own streets, a show as incongru¬ 
ous and inconsistent, — the pastor of a Christian church 
swelling the pomp of a military parade. And some 
have heard, within a few short weeks, in a Christian 
pulpit, from the lips of an eminent Christian divine, a 
sermon, where we are encouraged to serve, the God of 
Battles , and, as citizen soldiers, fight for Peace : 1 a senti¬ 
ment in unhappy harmony with the profane language 
of the British peer, who, in addressing the House of 
Lords, said, “ The best road to Peace, my Lords , is War , 
and that in the manner we are taught to worship our 
Creator, namely, by carrying it on with all our souls, 
with all our minds, with all our hearts, and with all 
our strength,” 1 2 — but finding small support in a religion 
that expressly enjoins, when one cheek is smitten, to 

1 Discourse before the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, by 
A. H. Vinton. 

2 Earl of Abingdon, May 30, 1794: Hansard, Pari. Hist., XXXI. 680. 


56 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


turn the other, and which we hear with pain from 
a minister of Christian truth, — alas! thus made infe¬ 
rior to that of the heathen who preferred the unjustest 
peace to the justest war . 1 

Well may we marvel that now, in an age of civiliza¬ 
tion, the God of Battles should be invoked. “ Deo im- 
perante , quem adesse bellantibus credunt,” are the 
appropriate words of surprise in which Tacitus de¬ 
scribes a similar delusion of the ancient Germans . 2 
The polite Boman did not think God present with 
fighting men. This ancient superstition must have lost 
something of its hold even in Germany; for, at a 
recent period, her most renowned captain, — whose false 
glory procured for him the title of Great, — Frederick 
of Prussia, declared, with commendable frankness, that 
he always found the God of Battles on the side of the 
strongest regiments; and when it was proposed to 
place on his banner, soon to flout the sky of Silesia, 
the inscription, For God and Country , he rejected the 
first word, declaring it not proper to introduce the name 
of the Deity in the quarrels of men. By this ele¬ 
vated sentiment the warrior monarch may be remem¬ 
bered, when his fame of battle has passed away. 

The French priest of Mars, who proclaimed the 

1 “ Vel iniquissimam pacem justissimo hello anteferrem ,” are the words of 
Cicero. (Epist. A. Casein®: Epp. ad Diversos, VI. 6.) Only eight days after 
Franklin had placed his name to the treaty of peace which acknowledged 
the independence of his country, he wrote to a friend, “ May we never see 
another war! for, in my opinion, there never was a good war or a bad peace.” 
(Letter to Josiah Quincy: Works, ed. Sparks, Vol-. X. p. 11.) It is with sin¬ 
cere regret that I seem, by a particular allusion, to depart for a moment 
from so great a theme; but the person and the theme here become united. 
I cannot refrain from the effort to tear this iron branch of War from the 
golden tree of Christian Truth, even though a voice come forth from the 
breaking bough. 

2 De Moribus German., Cap. 7. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 57 

“ divinity ” of War, rivals the ancient Germans in faith 
that God is the tutelary guardian of battle, and he finds 
a new title, which he says “ shines ” on all the pages 
of Scripture, being none other than God of Armies} 
Never was greater mistake. No theology, no theodicy, 
has ever attributed to God this title. God is God of 
Heaven, God of Hosts, the Living God, and he is God 
of Peace,—so called by St. Paul, saying, “Now the God 
of Peace be with you all,” 1 2 and again, “ The God of Peace 
shall bruise Satan shortly,” 3 — but God of Armies he is 
not, as he is not God of Battles. 4 The title, whether of 
Armies or of Hosts, thus invoked for War, lias an oppo¬ 
site import, even angelic, — the armies named being sim¬ 
ply, according to authorities Ecclesiastical and Ptabbinical, 
the hosts of angels standing about the throne. Who, 
then, is God of Battles ? It is Mars, — man-slaying, 
blood-polluted, city-smiting Mars ! 5 It is not He who 
binds the sweet influences of the Pleiades and looses the 
bands of Orion, who causes the sun to shine on the evil 
and the good, who distils the oil of gladness upon every 
upright heart, who tempers the wind to the shorn 
lamb, — the Fountain of Mercy and Goodness, the God 
of Justice and Love. Mars is not the God of Chris¬ 
tians ; he is not Our Father in Heaven; to him can 
ascend no prayers of Christian thanksgiving, no words 
of Christian worship, no pealing anthem to swell the 
note of praise. 

And yet Christ and Mars are still brought into fel- 


1 Joseph de Maistre, Soirees de Saint-P^tersbourg, Tom. II. p. 27. 

2 Romans, xv. 33. 

3 Ibid., xvi. 20. 

4 A volume so common as Cruden’s Concordance shows the audacity of 
the martial claim. 

5 Iliad, V. 31. 


58 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


lowship, even interchanging pulpits. What a picture 
of contrasts! A national ship of the line now floats 
in this harbor. Many of you have pressed its deck, 
and observed with admiration the completeness which 
prevails in all its parts, — its lithe masts and complex 
network of ropes, — its thick wooden walls, within 
which are more than the soldiers of Ulysses, — its 
strong defences, and its numerous dread and rude- 
throated engines of War. There, each Sabbath, amidst 
this armament of blood, while the wave comes gently 
plashing against the frowning sides, from a pulpit sup¬ 
ported by a cannon, in repose now, but ready to awake 
its dormant thunder charged with death, a Christian 
preacher addresses officers and crew. May his in¬ 
structions carry strength and succor to their souls! 
But, in such a place, those highest words of the Mas¬ 
ter he professes, “ Blessed are the peacemakers,” “ Love 
your enemies,” “ Besist not evil,” must, like Macbeth’s 
“ Amen,” stick in the throat. 

It will not be doubted that this strange and unblessed 
conjunction of the Church with War has no little in¬ 
fluence in blinding the world to the truth, too slowly 
recognized, That the whole custom of war is contrary to 
Christianity. 

Individual interests mingle with prevailing errors, 
and are so far concerned in maintaining them that 
military men yield reluctantly to this truth. Like law¬ 
yers, as described by Voltaire, they are “ conservators of 
ancient barbarous usages.” But that these usages should 
obtain countenance in the Church is one of those anom¬ 
alies which make us feel the weakness of our nature, 
if not the elevation of Christian truth. To uphold the 
Arbitrament of War requires no more than to uphold 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


59 


the Trial by Battle; for the two are identical, except in 
proportion. One is a giant, the other a pygmy. Long 
ago the Church condemned the pygmy, and this Chris¬ 
tian judgment now awaits extension to the giant. 
Meanwhile it is perpetual testimony; nor should it 
be forgotten, that, for some time after the Apostles, 
when the message of peace and good-will was first re¬ 
ceived, many yielded to it so completely as to reject 
arms of all kinds. Such was the voice of Justin Mar¬ 
tyr, Irenseus, Tertullian, and Origen, while Augustine 
pleads always for Peace. Gibbon coldly recounts, how 
Maximilian, a youthful recruit from Africa, refused to 
serve, insisting that his conscience would not permit 
him to embrace the profession of soldier, and then 
how Marcellus the Centurion, on the day of a public 
festival, threw away his belt, his arms, and the ensigns 
of command, exclaiming with a loud voice, that he 
would obey none but Jesus Christ, the Eternal King. 1 
Martyrdom ensued, and the Church has inscribed their 
names on its everlasting rolls, thus forever commemo¬ 
rating their testimony. These are early examples, not 
without successors. But Mars, so potent, especially in 
Borne, was not easily dislodged, and down to this day 
holds his place at Christian altars. 

“ Thee to defend the Moloch priest prefers 
The prayer of hate, and bellows to the herd, 

That Deity, accomplice Deity, 

In the fierce jealousy of wakened wrath, 

Will go forth with our armies and our fleets 
To scatter the red ruin on their foes! 

0, blasphemy! to mingle fiendish deeds 
With blessedness! ” 2 

1 Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chap. XVI. Vol. I. p 
680. 

2 Coleridge, Religious Musings, written Christmas Eve, 1794. 


60 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


One of the beautiful pictures adorning the dome of a 
church in Koine, by that master of Art, whose immortal 
colors speak as with the voice of a poet, the Divine 
Raphael, represents Mars in the attitude of War, with 
a drawn sword uplifted and ready to strike, while an 
unarmed angel from behind, with gentle, but irresist¬ 
ible force; arrests and holds the descending hand. Such 
is the true image of Christian duty; nor can I readily 
perceive any difference in principle between those min¬ 
isters of the Gospel who themselves gird on the sword, 
as in the olden time, and those others, unarmed, and in 
customary suit of solemn black, who lend the sanction 
of their presence to the martial array, or to any form of 
preparation for War. The drummer, who pleaded that 
he did not fight, was held more responsible for the bat¬ 
tle than the soldier, — as it was the sound of his drum 
that inflamed the flagging courage of the troops. 

4. From prejudices engendered by the Church I pass 
to prejudices engendered by the army itself, having their 
immediate origin in military life, but unfortunately dif¬ 
fusing themselves throughout the community, in widen¬ 
ing, though less apparent circles. I allude directly to 
what is called the Point of Honor, early child of Chivalry, 
living representative of its barbarism. 1 It is difficult to 
define what is so evanescent, so impalpable, so chimeri¬ 
cal, so unreal, and yet which exercises such fiendish 

1 The Point of Honor has a literature of its own, illustrated by many vol¬ 
umes, some idea of which may be obtained in Brunet, “ Manuel du Libraire,” 
Tom. VI. col. 1636- 1638, under the head of Chevalerie au Moyen Age , com- 
prenant les Tournois, les Combats Singuliers , etc. One of these has a title 
much in advance of the age in which it appeared: “ Chrestienne Confutation 
du Point d’Honneur sur lequel la Noblesse fonde aujourd’hui ses Querelles 
et Monomachies,” par Christ, de Chiffontaine, Paris, 1579. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


61 


power over many men, and controls the intercourse of na¬ 
tions. As a little water, fallen into the crevice of a rock, 
under the congelation of winter, swells till it hursts the 
thick and stony fibres, so a word or slender act, drop¬ 
ping into the heart of man, under the hardening in¬ 
fluence of this pernicious sentiment, dilates till it rends 
in pieces the sacred depository of human affection, and 
the demons Hate and Strife are left to rage. The mus¬ 
ing Hamlet saw this sentiment in its strange and unnat¬ 
ural potency, when his soul pictured to his contempla¬ 
tions an 

“ army of such mass and charge, 

Led by a delicate and tender prince, .... 

Exposing what is mortal and unsure 
To all that fortune, death, and danger dare, 

Even for an egg-shell ”; 

and when, again, giving to the sentiment its strongest 
and most popular expression, he exclaims, — 

“ Rightly to be great 
Is not to stir without great argument, 

But greatly to find quarrel in a straw , 

When honor's at the stake." 

And when is honor at stake ? This inquiry opens 
again the argument with which I commenced, and with 
which I hope to close. Honor can be at stake only 
where justice and beneficence are at stake; it can never 
depend on egg-shell or straw; it can never depend on 
any hasty word of anger or folly, not even if fol¬ 
lowed by vulgar violence. True honor appears in the 
dignity of the human soul, in that highest moral and 
intellectual excellence which is the nearest approach to 
qualities we reverence as attributes of God. Our com¬ 
munity frowns with indignation upon the profaneness 
of the duel, having its rise in this irrational point of 


62 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


honor. Are you aware that you indulge the same senti¬ 
ment on a gigantic scale, when you recognize this very 
point of honor as a proper apology for War ? We have 
already seen that justice is in no respect promoted by 
War. Is True Honor promoted where justice is not ? 

The very word Honor, as used by the world, fails to 
express any elevated sentiment. How immeasurably 
below the sentiment of Duty I It is a word of easy 
virtue, that has been prostituted to the most opposite 
characters and transactions. From the field of Pavia, 
where France suffered one of the worst reverses in her 
annals, the defeated king writes to his mother, “ All 
is lost, except honor!' At a later day, the renowned 
French cook, Vatel, in a paroxysm of grief and mortifi¬ 
cation at the failure of two dishes for the table, exclaims, 
“ I have lost my honor ! ” and stabs himself to the heart . 1 
Montesquieu, whose writings are constellations of epi¬ 
grams, calls honor a prejudice only, which he places in 
direct contrast with virtue, — the former being the ani¬ 
mating principle of monarchy, and the latter the ani¬ 
mating principle of a republic ; but he reveals the inferi¬ 
ority of honor, as a principle, when he adds, that, in a 
well-governed monarchy, almost everybody is a good 


1 The death of the culinary martyr is described by Madame de S^vignd 
with the accustomed coldness and brilliancy of her fashionable pen (Lettres 
L. and LI., Tom. I. pp. 164, 165). It was attributed, she says, to the high 
sense of honor he had after his own way. Tributes multiply. A French 
vaudeville associates his name with that of this brilliant writer, saying, 
“ Madame de Sdvignd and Vatel are the people who honored the age of Louis 
XIV.” The Almanach des Gourmands, in the Epistle Dedicatory of its con¬ 
cluding volume, addresses the venerable shade of the heroic cook: “You 
have proved that the fanaticism of honor can exist in the kitchen as well as 
the camp.” Berchoux commemorates the dying exclamation in La Gastro- 
nomie, Chant III.: — 

“ Jo suisperdu d'honneur, deux rotis out manqud.” 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 63 

citizen, while it is rare to meet a really good man . 1 The 
man of honor is not the man of virtue. By an instinct 
pointing to the truth, we do not apply this term to the 
high columnar qualities which sustain and decorate life, 
— parental affection, justice, benevolence, the attributes 
of God. He would seem to borrow a feebler phrase, 
showing a slight appreciation of the distinctive character 
to whom reverence is accorded, who should speak of 
father, mother, judge, angel, or finally of God, as persons 
of honor. In such sacred connections, we feel, beyond 
the force of any argument, the mundane character of 
the sentiment which plays such a part in history and 
even in common life. 

The rule of honor is founded in the imagined neces¬ 
sity of resenting by force a supposed injury, whether of 
word or act . 2 Admit the injury received, seeming to 
sully the character; is it wiped away by any force, and 
descent to the brutal level of its author ? “ Could I 

wipe your blood from my conscience as easily as this 
insult from my face,” said a Marshal of France, greater 
on this occasion than on any field of fame, “ I would 
lay you dead at my feet.” Plato, reporting the angelic 
wisdom of Socrates, declares, in one of those beautiful 
dialogues shining with stellar light across the ages, 


1 Esprit des Lois, Liv. III. ch. 3-7. 

2 This is well exposed in a comedy of Moli^re. 

“ Don Pedre. Souhaitez-vous quelque chose de moi ? 

“ Hali. Oui, un conseil sur un fait d'honneur. Je sais qu’en ces matures 
il est mal-ais£ de trouver un cavalier plus consomm^ que vous. 

“ Seigneur, j'ai requ un soufflet. Vous savez ce qu’est un soufflet, lorsqu’il 
se donne a main ouverte sur le beau milieu de la joue. J'ai ce soufflet fort 
sur le co&ur; etje suis dans Vincertitude, si, pour me venger de l'ajfront,je dois 
me batfre avec mon homme, ou bien le faire assassiner. 

“ Don Pedre. Assassiner, c’est le plus sur et le plus court chemin.” 

Le Sicilien , Sc. XIII. 



64 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


that to do a wrong is more shameful than to receive a 
yjrong} And this benign sentiment commends itself 
alike to the Christian, who is bid to render good for 
evil, and to the enlightened soul of man. But who con¬ 
fessing its truth will resort to force on any point of 
honor ? 

In ancient Athens, as in unchristianized Christian 
lands, there were sophists who urged that to suffer 
was unbecoming a man, and would draw down incalcu¬ 
lable evil. The following passage, which I translate 
with scrupulous literalness, will show the manner in 
which the moral cowardice of these persons of little 
faith was rebuked by him whom the gods of Greece 
pronounced Wisest of Men. 

" These things being so, let us inquire what it is you 
reproach me with: whether it is well said, or not, that 
I, forsooth, am not able to assist either myself or any of 
my friends or my relations, or to save myself from the 
greatest dangers, but that, like the infamous, I am at the 
mercy of any one who may choose to smite me on the 
face (for this was your juvenile expression), or take 
away my property, or drive me out of the city, or (the 
extreme case) kill me, and that to be so situated is, as 
you say, the most shameful of all things. But my view 
is, — a view many times expressed already, but there 
is no objection to its being stated again, — my view , I 
say , is, 0 Callicles, that to be struck on the face unjustly 
is not most shameful , nor to have my body mutilated , nor 
my purse cut; but that to strike and cut me and mine 
unjustly is more shameful and worse — and stealing , too, 

1 This proposition is enforced by Socrates, with unanswerable reasoning 
and illustration, throughout the Gorgias , which Cicero read diligently while 
studying at Athens (De Oratore, I. 11). 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


65 


and enslaving, and housebreaking, and, in general, doing 
any wrong whatever to me and mine, is more shameful and 
worse —for him who does the wrong than for me who suffer 
it. These things, which th,us appeared to us in the for¬ 
mer part of this discussion, are secured and bound 
(even if the expression be somewhat rustical) with iron 
and adamantine arguments, as indeed they would seem to 
be; and unless you, or some one stronger than you, can 
break them, it is impossible for any one, saying other¬ 
wise than as I now say, to speak correctly: since, for 
my part, I always have the same thing to say, — that I 
know not how these things are, but that, of all whom I 
have ever discoursed with as now, no one is able to say 
otherwise without being ridiculous .” 1 

Such is the wisdom of Socrates, as reported by Plato; 
and it has found beautiful expression in the verse of an 
English poet, who says, — 

“ Dear as freedom is, and in my heart’s 
Just estimation prized above all price, 

1 had much rather be myself the slave 

And wear the bonds than fasten them on him.” 2 

The modern point of honor did not obtain a place 
in warlike antiquity. Themistocles at Salamis, when 
threatened with a blow, did not send a cartel to the 
Spartan commander. “Strike, but hear,” was the re¬ 
sponse of that firm nature, which felt that true honor is 
gained only in the performance of duty. It was in 
the depths of modern barbarism, in the age of chivalry, 
that this sentiment shot up into wildest and rank¬ 
est fancies. Not a step was taken without it. No 
act without reference to the “bewitching duel.” And 
every stage in the combat, from the ceremonial at its 

1 Gorgias, Cap. LXIV. 
a Cowper, The Task, Book II. w. 33-36. 


66 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


beginning to its deadly close, was measured by this fan¬ 
tastic law. Nobody forgets As You Like It, with its 
humorous picture of a quarrel in progress to a duel, 
through the seven * degrees, of Touchstone. Nothing 
more ridiculous, as nothing can be more disgusting, than 
the degradation in which this whole fantasy of honor 
had its origin, as fully appears from an authentic inci¬ 
dent in the life of its most brilliant representative. The 
Chevalier Bayard, cynosure of chivalry, the good knight 
without fear and without reproach, battling with the 
Spaniard Senor Don Alonso de Soto Mayor, succeeded 
by a feint in striking him such a blow, that the weapon, 
despite the gorget, penetrated the throat four fingers 
deep. The wounded Spaniard grappled with his antago¬ 
nist until they both rolled on the ground, when Bayard, 
drawing his dagger, and thrusting the point directly into 
the nostrils of his foe, exclaimed, “ Senor Don Alonso, 
surrender, or you are a dead man !” — a speech which ap¬ 
peared superfluous, as the second of the Spaniard cried 
out, “ Senor Bayard, he is dead already; you have con¬ 
quered.” The French knight “ would gladly have given 
a hundred thousand crowns, if he had had them, to have 
vanquished him alive,” says the Chronicle; but now 
falling upon his knees, he kissed the earth three times, 
then rose and drew his dead enemy from the field, 
saying to the second, “ Senor Don Diego, have I done 
enough ? ” To which the other piteously replied, " Too 
much, Senor Bayard, for the honor of Spain ! ” when the 
latter very generously presented him with the corpse, 
it being his right, by the Law of Honor, to dispose of it 
as he thought proper: an act highly commended by 
the chivalrous Brantome, who thinks it difficult to say 
which did most honor to the faultless knight, — not 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


67 


dragging the dead body by a leg ignominiously from 
the field, like the carcass of a dog, or condescending to 
fight while suffering under an ague ! 1 

In such a transaction, conferring honor upon the 
brightest son of chivalry, we learn the real character of 
an age whose departure has been lamented with such 
touching, but inappropriate eloquence. Thank God! 
the age of chivalry is gone; but it cannot be allowed 
to prolong its fanaticism of honor into our day. This 
must remain with the lances, swords, and daggers by 
which it was guarded, or appear, if it insists, only with 
its inseparable American companions, bowie-knife, pis¬ 
tol, and rifle. 

A true standard of conduct is found only in the 
highest civilization, with those two inspirations, justice 
and benevolence, — never in any barbarism, though af¬ 
fecting the semblance of sensibility and refinement. 
But this standard, while governing the relations of the 
individual, must be recognized by nations also. Alas ! 
alas! how long ? We still wait that happy day, now 
beginning to dawn, harbinger of infinite happiness be¬ 
yond, when nations, like men, shall confess that it is 
better to receive a wrong than do a wrong. 

5. There is still another influence stimulating War, 
and interfering with the natural attractions of Peace: I 
refer to a selfish and exaggerated prejudice of country, 
leading to physical aggrandizement and political exal¬ 
tation at the expense of other countries, and in disre- 

1 La Tresjoyeuse, Plaisante et Recreative Hystoire, composee par le Loyal 
Serviteur, des Faiz, Gestes, Triumphes et Prouesses du Bon Chevalier sans 
Paour et sans Reprouche, le Gentil Seigneur de Bavart, Chap. XXII.: 
Petitot, Collection Complete des M^moires relatifs a l’Histoire de France, 
Tom. XV. pp. 238-244. Bran tome, Discours sur les Duels: (Euvres, Tom. 
VIII. pp. 34, 35. 


68 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


gard of justice. Nursed by the literature of antiquity, 
we imbibe the sentiment of heathen patriotism. Ex¬ 
clusive love for the land of birth belonged to the re¬ 
ligion of Greece and Home. This sentiment was ma¬ 
terial as well as exclusive. The Oracle directed the 
returning Roman to kiss his mother, and he kissed 
Mother Earth. Agamemnon, according to iEschylus, 
on regaining his home, after perilous separation for 
more than ten years at the siege of Troy, before ad¬ 
dressing family, friend, or countryman, salutes Argos : — 

“ By your leave, lords, first Argos I salute.” 

The schoolboy does not forget the victim of Verres, with 
the memorable cry which was to stay the descending 
fasces of the lictor, “ I am a Roman citizen,”—nor those 
other words echoing through the dark Past, “ How sweet 
and becoming to die for country ! ” Of little avail the 
nobler cry, “ I am a man,” or the Christian ejaculation, 
swelling the soul, “How sweet and becoming to die 
for duty ! ” The beautiful genius of Cicero, instinct at 
times with truth almost divine, did not ascend to that 
heaven where it is taught that all mankind are neighbors 
and kindred. To the love of universal man may be ap¬ 
plied those words by which the great Roman elevated 
his selfish patriotism to virtue, when he said that country 
alone embraced all the charities of all} Attach this ad¬ 
mired phrase to the single idea of country, and you see 
how contracted are its charities, compared with that 
world-wide circle where our neighbor is the suffering 

o O 

1 “ Cari sunt parentes, cari liberi, propinqui, familiares ; sed omnes omni¬ 
um caritates patria una complexa esV (De Offic., Lib. I. cap. 17.) It is 
curious to observe how Cicero puts aside that expression of true humanity 
which fell from Terence, “ Humani nihil a me alienumputo.” He says, “ Est 
enim difficilis cura rerum alienarum." Ibid., Lib. I. cap. 9. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


69 


man, though at the farthest pole. Such a sentiment 
would dry up those precious fountains now diffusing 
themselves in distant unenlightened lands, from the icy 
mountains of Greenland to the coral islands of the 
Pacific Sea. 

It is the policy of rulers to encourage this exclusive 
patriotism, and here they are aided by the examples 
of antiquity. I do not know that any one nation is 
permitted to reproach another with this selfishness. 
All are selfish. Men are taught to live, not for man¬ 
kind, but only for a small portion of mankind. The 
pride, vanity, ambition, brutality even, which all rebuke 
in the individual, are accounted virtues, if displayed in 
the name of country. Among us the sentiment is ac¬ 
tive, while it derives new force from the point with 
which it has been expressed. An officer of our navy, 
one of the heroes nurtured by War, whose name has 
been praised in churches, going beyond all Greek, all 
Eoman example, exclaimed, “ Our country, right or 
wrong ,” — a sentiment dethroning God and enthroning 
the Devil, whose flagitious character must be rebuked 
by every honest heart. How different was virtuous 
Andrew Fletcher, whose heroical uprightness, amidst 
the trials of his time, has become immortal in the say¬ 
ing, that he “ would readily lose his life to serve his 
country, but would not do a base thing to save it.” 1 
Better words, or more truly patriotic, were never uttered. 
“ Our country, our whole country, and nothing but our 
country ,” are other delusive sounds, which, first falling 
from the lips of an eminent American orator, are often 
painted on banners, and echoed by innumerable multi¬ 
tudes. Cold and dreary, narrow and selfish would be 

i Character, prefixed to Political Works, p. viii. 


70 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


this life, if nothing but our country occupied the soul,— 
if the thoughts that wander through eternity, if the 
infinite affections of our nature, were restrained to that 
place where we find ourselves by the accident of birth. 

By a natural sentiment we incline to the spot where 
we were born, to the fields that witnessed the sports of 
childhood, to the seat of youthful studies, and to the 
institutions under which we have been trained. The 
finger of God writes all these things indelibly upon the 
heart of man, so that even in death he reverts with 
fondness to early associations, and longs for a draught 
of cold water from the bucket in his father’s well. This 
sentiment is independent of reflection : for it begins be¬ 
fore reflection, grows with our growth, and strengthens 
with our strength. It is the same in all countries hav¬ 
ing the same degree of enlightenment, differing only 
according to enlightenment, under whose genial in¬ 
fluence it softens and refines. It is the strongest with 
those least enlightened. The wretched Hottentot never 
travels away from his melting sun; the wretched Esqui¬ 
mau never travels away from his freezing cold; nor 
does either know or care for other lands. This is his 
patriotism. The same instinct belongs to animals. 
There is no beast not instinctively a patriot, cherish¬ 
ing his own country with all its traditions, which he 
guards instinctively against all comers. Thus again, in 
considering the origin of War, do we encounter the ani¬ 
mal in man. But as human nature is elevated, as the 
animal is subdued, that patriotism which is without rea¬ 
son shares the generous change and gradually loses its 
barbarous egotism. To the enlarged vision a new world 
is disclosed, and we begin to discern the distant moun¬ 
tain-peaks, all gilded by the beams of morning, reveal- 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


71 


ing that God has not placed us alone on this earth, but 
that others, equally with ourselves, are children of his 
care. 

The curious spirit goes further, and, while recognizing 
an inborn attachment to the place of birth, searches into 
the nature of the allegiance required. According to the 
old idea, still too prevalent, man is made for the State, 
not the State for man. Far otherwise is the truth. The 
State is an artificial body, for the security of the peo¬ 
ple. How constantly do we find in human history that 
the people are sacrificed for the State, — to build the 
Eoman name, to secure for England the trident of the 
sea, to carry abroad the conquering eagles of France! 
This is to barter the greater for the less, — to sacrifice 
humanity, embracing more even than country all the 
charities of all , for the sake of a mistaken grandeur. 

Not that I love country less, but Humanity more, do 
I now and here plead the cause of a higher and truer 
patriotism. I cannot forget that we are men by a more 
sacred bond than we are citizens, — that we are children 
of a common Father more than we are Americans. 

Thus do seeming diversities of nations — separated 
by accident of language, mountain, river, or sea — all 
disappear, and the multitudinous tribes of the globe 
stand forth as members of one vast Human Family, 
where strife is treason to Heaven, and all war is nothing 
else than civil war. In vain restrict this odious term, 
importing so much of horror, to the dissensions of a 
single community. It belongs also to feuds between 
nations. The soul trembles aghast in the contempla¬ 
tion of fields drenched with fraternal gore, where the 
happiness of homes is shivered by neighbors, and kins¬ 
man sinks beneath the steel nerved by a kinsman’s 


72 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


hand. This is civil war, accursed forever in the calen¬ 
dar of Time. In the faithful record of the future, rec¬ 
ognizing the True Grandeur of Nations, the Muse of 
History, inspired by a loftier justice and touched to finer 
sensibilities, will extend to Universal Man the sympa¬ 
thy now confined to country, and no war will be waged 
without arousing everlasting judgment. 

6. I might here pause, feeling that those who have 
accompanied me to this stage* will be ready to join in 
condemnation of War, and to hail Peace as the only con¬ 
dition becoming the dignity of human nature, while it 
opens vistas of all kinds abundant with the most fruit¬ 
ful promises. But there is one other consideration, 
yielding to none in importance, — perhaps more impor¬ 
tant than all, being at once cause and effect, — the cause 
of strong prejudice in favor of War, and the effect of 
this prejudice. I refer to Preparations for War in time 
of Peace. Here is an immense practical evil, requiring 
remedy. In exposing its character too much care can¬ 
not be taken. 

I shall not dwell upon the fearful cost of War itself. 
That is present in the mountainous accumulations of 
debt, piled like Ossa upon Pelion, with which civili¬ 
zation is pressed to earth. According to the most recent 
tables, the public debt of European nations, so far as 
known, amounts to the terrific sum of $ 7,777,521,840, 
— all the growth of War! It is said that there are 
throughout these nations 17,000,000 paupers, or persons 
subsisting at the public expense, without contributing 
to its resources. If these millions of public debt, form¬ 
ing only a part of what has been wasted in War, could 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


73 


be apportioned among these poor, it would give to each 
$450, — a sum placing all above want, and about equal 
to the average wealth of an inhabitant of Massachu¬ 
setts. 

The public debt of Great Britain in 1842 reached to 
$3,827,833,102, the growth of War since 1688. This 
amount is equal to two thirds of all the harvest of 
gold and silver yielded by Spanish America, including 
Mexico and Peru, from the discovery of our hemi¬ 
sphere by Christopher Columbus to the beginning of 
the present century, as calculated by Humboldt. 1 It 
is much larger than the mass of all the precious metals 
constituting at this moment the circulating medium 
of the world. Sometimes it is rashly said, by those 
who have given little attention to the subject, that 
all this expenditure has been widely distributed, and 
therefore beneficial to the people; but this apology for¬ 
gets that it has not been bestowed on any produc¬ 
tive industry or useful object. The magnitude of this 
waste appears by contrast. For instance, the aggre¬ 
gate capital of all the joint-stock companies in Eng¬ 
land of which there was any known record in 1842, 
embracing canals, docks, bridges, insurance, banks, gas¬ 
lights, water, mines, railways, and other miscellaneous 
objects, was about $800,000,000, — all devoted to the 
welfare of the people, but how much less in amount 
than the War Debt! For the six years preceding 
1842, the average payment for interest on this debt 
was $ 141,645,157 annually. If we add to this sum 
the further annual outlay of $66,780,817 for the army, 
navy, and ordnance, we shall have $208,425,974 as 
the annual tax of the English people, to pay for for- 

1 New Spain, Vol. III. p- 431. 


74 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


mer wars and prepare for new. During this same 
period, an annual appropriation of $24,858,442 was 
sufficient for the entire civil service. Thus War con¬ 
sumed ninety cents of every dollar pressed by heavy 
taxation from the English people. What fabulous mon¬ 
ster, what chimaera dire, ever raged with a maw so rav¬ 
enous ? The remaining ten cents sufficed to maintain 
the splendor of the throne, the administration of justice, 
and diplomatic relations with foreign powers, — in short, 
all the more legitimate objects of a nation. 1 

Thus much for the general cost of War. Let us now 
look exclusively at the Preparations for War in time of 
Peace. It is one of the miseries of War, that even in 
Peace its evils continue to be felt beyond any other 
by which suffering humanity is oppressed. If Bellona 
withdraws from the field, we only lose sight of her flam¬ 
ing torches; the baying of her dogs is heard on the 
mountains, and civilized man thinks to find protection 
from their sudden fury only by inclosing himself in the 
barbarous armor of battle. At this moment, the Chris¬ 
tian nations, worshipping a symbol of common brother¬ 
hood, occupy intrenched camps, with armed watch, to 
prevent surprise from each other. Recognizing War 
as Arbiter of Justice, they hold themselves perpetually 
ready for the bloody umpirage. 

It is difficult, if not impossible, to arrive at any exact 
estimate of these Preparations, ranging under four dif¬ 
ferent heads, — Standing Army, Navy, Fortifications, 
and Militia, or irregular troops. 

1 Here and in subsequent pages I have relied upon the Encyclopedia 
Britannica, the Annual Register, McCulloch’s Commercial Dictionary, Lau¬ 
rie’s Universal Geography, founded on the works of Malte-Brun and Balbi, 
and the calculations of Hon. William Jay, in War and Peace, p. 16, and 
in his Address before the Peace Society, pp. 28, 29. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


75 


The number of soldiers now affecting to keep the 
peace of European Christendom, as a Standing Army , 
without counting the Navy, is upwards of two millions: 
some estimates place it as high as three millions. The 
army of Great Britain, including the forces in India, 
exceeds 300,000 men ; that of France, 350,000 ; that of 
Kussia, 730,000, and is reckoned by some as high as 
1,000,000; that of Austria, 275,000; that of Prussia, 
150,000. Taking the smaller number, and supposing 
these two millions to require for their support an aver¬ 
age annual sum of only $150 each, the result would 
be $ 300,000,000 for sustenance alone; and reckoning 
one officer to ten soldiers, and allowing to each of the 
latter an English shilling a day, or $ 88.33 a year, for 
wages, and to the former an average annual salary of 
$ 500, we have for the pay of the whole no less than 
$ 258,994,000, or an appalling sum-total, for both suste¬ 
nance and pay, of $ 558,994,000 a year. If the same cal¬ 
culation be made, supposing the force three millions, the 
sum-total will be $ 838,491,000 ! But to this enormous 
sum must be added another still more enormous, on 
account of loss sustained by the withdrawal of these 
hardy, healthy millions, in the bloom of life, from use¬ 
ful, productive labor. It is supposed that it costs an 
average sum of $500 to rear a soldier, and that the 
value of his labor, if devoted to useful objects, would 
be $ 150 a year. Therefore, in setting apart two mil¬ 
lions of men as soldiers, the Christian powers sustain 
a loss of $ 1,000,000,000 on account of training, 
and $300,000,000 on account of labor, in addition 
to the millions annually expended for sustenance and 
pay. So much for the Standing Army of Christian 
Europe in time of Peace. 


76 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


Glance now at the Navy. The Royal Navy of Great 
Britain consists at present of 557 ships; but deducting 
such as are used for convict ships, floating chapels, and 
coal depots, the efficient Navy comprises 88 ships of the 
line, 109 frigates, 190 small frigates, corvettes, brigs, and 
cutters, including packets, 65 steamers of various sizes, 
3 troop-ships and yachts: in all, 455 ships. Of these, 
in 1839, 190 were in commission, carrying in all 4,202 
guns, with crews numbering 34,465 men. The Navy of 
France, though not comparable with that of England, 
is of vast force. By royal ordinance of 1st January, 
1837, it was fixed in time of peace at 40 ships of the line, 
50 frigates, 40 steamers, and 19 smaller vessels, with 
crews numbering, in 1839, 20,317 men. The Russian 
Navy is composed of two large fleets, — one in the Gulf 
of Finland, and the other in the Black Sea; but the ex¬ 
act amount of their force is a subject of dispute among 
naval men and publicists. Some idea of the Navy may 
be derived from the number of hands. The crews of 
the Baltic amounted, in 1837, to not less than 30,800 
men, and those of the Black Sea to 19,800, or altogether 
50,600, — being nearly equal to those of England and 
France combined. The Austrian Navy comprised, in 
1837, 8 ships of the line, 8 frigates, 4 sloops, 6 brigs, 
7 schooners or galleys, and smaller vessels: the num¬ 
ber of men in its service, in 1839, was 4,547. The 
Navy of Denmark comprised, at the close of 1837, 7 
ships of the line, 7 frigates, 5 sloops, 6 brigs, 3 schoon¬ 
ers, 5 cutters, 58 gunboats, 6 gun-rafts, and 3 bomb- 
vessels, requiring about 6,500 men. The Navy of 
Sweden and Norway consisted recently of 238 gun¬ 
boats, 11 ships of the line, 8 frigates, 4 corvettes, and 
6 brigs, with several smaller vessels. The Navy of 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


77 


Greece has 32 ships of war, carrying 190 guns, with 
2,400 men. The Navy of Holland, in 1839, had 8 
ships of the line, 21 frigates, 15 corvettes, 21 brigs, 
and 95 gunboats. Of the untold cost absorbed in 
these mighty Preparations it is impossible to form an 
accurate idea. But we may lament that means so 
gigantic are applied by Christian Europe, in time of 
Peace, to the construction and maintenance of such su¬ 
perfluous wooden walls. 

In the FortificatioTis and Arsenals of Europe, crown¬ 
ing every height, commanding every valley, frowning 
over every plain and every sea, wealth beyond calcu¬ 
lation has been sunk. Who can tell the immense 
sums expended in hollowing out the living rock of 
Gibraltar ? Who can calculate the cost of all the 
Preparations at Woolwich, its 27,000 cannon, and its 
small arms counted by hundreds of thousands ? France 
alone contains more than one hundred and twenty for¬ 
tified places; and it is supposed that the yet unfinished 
fortifications of Paris have cost upward of fifty millions 
of dollars. 

The cost of. the Militia , or irregular troops, the Yeo¬ 
manry of England, the National Guard of Paris, and 
the Landwehr and Landsturm of Prussia, must add 
other incalculable sums to these enormous amounts. 

Turn now to the United States, separated by a broad 
ocean from immediate contact with the Great Powers 
of Christendom, bound by treaties of amity and com¬ 
merce with all the nations of the earth, connected with 
all by strong ties of mutual interest, and professing a 
devotion to the principles of Peace. Are Treaties of 
Amity mere words ? Are relations of Commerce and 
mutual interest mere things of a day ? Are professions 


78 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


of Peace vaiii ? Else why not repose in quiet, unvexed 
by Preparations for War ? 

Colossal as are European expenditures for these 
purposes, they are still greater among us in proportion 
to other expenses of the National Government. 

It appears that the average annual expenses of 
the National Government, 'for the six years ending 
1840, exclusive of payments on account of debt, were 
$26,474,892. Of this sum, the average appropriation 
each year for milit^y and naval purposes amounted 
to $21,328,903, being eighty per cent. Yes, — of all 
the annual appropriations by the National Govern¬ 
ment, eighty cents in every dollar were applied in this 
unproductive manner. The remaining twenty cents suf¬ 
ficed to maintain the Government in all its branches, 
Executive, Legislative, and Judicial, — the administra¬ 
tion of justice, our relations with foreign nations, the 
post-office, and all the lighthouses, which, in happy, use¬ 
ful contrast with the forts, shed their cheerful signals 
over the rough waves beating upon our long and in¬ 
dented coast, from the Bay of Eundy to the mouth of 
the Mississippi. The relative expenditures of nations 
for Military Preparations in time of Peace, exclusive 
of payments on account of debts, when accurately un¬ 
derstood, must surprise the advocates of economy in 
our country. In proportion to the whole expenditure 
of Government, they are, in Austria, as 33 per cent; in 
France, as 38 per cent; in Prussia, as 44 per cent; in 
Great Britain, as 74 per cent; in the United States, as 
80 per cent! 1 

1 I have verified these results, but do little more than follow Judge Jay, 
who has illustrated this important point with his accustomed accuracy.— 
Address before the American Peace Society , p. 30. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


79 


To this stupendous waste may be added the still 
larger and equally superfluous expenses of the Militia 
throughout the country, placed recently by a candid 
and able writer at $ 50,000,000 a year ! 1 

By a table of the National expenditures, 2 exclusive of 
payments on account of the Public Debt, it appears, 
that, in fifty-four years from the formation of our 
present Government , that is, from 1789 down to 1843, 
$ 155,282,217 were expended for civil purposes, com¬ 
prehending the executive, the legislative, the judiciary, 
the post-office, light-houses, and intercourse with foreign 
governments. During this same period, $370,981,521 
were devoted to the Military establishment, and 
$169,707,214 to the Naval establishment, — the two 
forming an aggregate of $ 540,688,735. Deducting 
from this amount appropriations during three years 
of War, and we find that more than four hundred 
and sixty millions were absorbed by vain Preparations 
for War in time of Peace. Add to this amount a 
moderate sum for the expenses of the Militia during 
the same period, which, as we have seen, are placed 
at $50,000,000 a year, — for the past years we may 
take an average of $25,000,000, — and we have the 
enormous sum-total of $1,350,000,000 piled upon the 
$460,000,000, the whole amounting to eighteen hun¬ 
dred and ten millions of dollars, a sum not easily con¬ 
ceived by the human faculties, sunk, under the sanc¬ 
tion of the National Government, in mere peaceful 
Preparations for War: almost twelve times as much as 
was dedicated by the National Government, during the 
same period, to all other purposes whatsoever. 

1 Jay, War and Peace, p. 13. 

2 Executive Document No. 15, Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session, 
pp. 1018 -19. 


80 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


From this serried array of figures the mind instinc¬ 
tively recoils. If we examine them from a nearer point 
of view, and, selecting some particular item, compare it 
with the figures representing other interests in the com¬ 
munity, they will present a front still more dread. 

Within cannon-range of this city stands an institu¬ 
tion of learning which was one of the earliest cares of 
our forefathers, the conscientious Puritans. Favored 
child in an age of trial and struggle, — carefully nursed 
through a period of hardship and anxiety, — endowed 
at that time by the oblations of men like Harvard, — sus¬ 
tained from its first foundation by the parental arm of the 
Commonwealth, by a constant succession of munificent 
bequests, and by the prayers of good men, — the Uni¬ 
versity at Cambridge now invites our homage, as the 
most ancient, most interesting, and most important seat 
of learning in the land, — possessing the oldest and 
most valuable library, — one of the largest museums 
of mineralogy and natural history, — with a School of 
Law which annually receives into its bosom more than 
one hundred and fifty sons from all parts of the Union, 
where they listen to instruction from professors whose 
names are among the most valuable possessions of the 
land, — also a School of Divinity, fount of true learning 
and piety, — also one of the largest and most flourish¬ 
ing Schools of Medicine in the country, — and besides 
these, a general body of teachers, twenty-seven in num¬ 
ber, many of whose names help to keep the name of 
the country respectable in every part of the globe, 
where science, learning, and taste are cherished, — the 
whole presided over at this moment by a gentleman 
early distinguished in public life by unconquerable 
energy and masculine eloquence, at a later period by 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


81 


the unsurpassed ability with which he administered the 
affairs of our city, and now, in a green old age, full of 
years and honors, preparing to lay down his present 
high trust. 1 Such is Harvard University; and as one 
of the humblest of her children, happy in the memories 
of a youth nurtured in her classic retreats, I cannot 
allude to her without an expression of filial affection 
and respect. 

It appears from the last Report of the Treasurer, 
that the whole available property of the University, 
the various accumulation of more than two centuries 
of generosity, amounts to $ 703,175. 

Change the scene, and cast your eyes upon another 
object. There now swings idly at her moorings in this 
harbor a ship of the line, the Ohio, carrying ninety 
guns, finished as late as 1836 at an expense of 
$547,888, — repaired only two years afterwards, in 
1838, for $233,012, — with an armament which has 
cost $53,945, — making an aggregate of $834,845, 
as the actual outlay at this moment for that single 
ship, 2 — more than $100,000 beyond all the available 
wealth of the richest and most ancient seat of learning 
in the land ! Choose ye, my fellow-citizens of a Chris¬ 
tian state, between the two caskets, — that wherein is 
the loveliness of truth, or that which contains the 
carrion death. 

I refer to the Ohio because this ship happens to be 
in our waters ; but I do not take the strongest case 
afforded by our Navy. Other ships have absorbed 
larger sums. The expense of the Delaware, in 1842, 
had reached $1,051,000. 

1 Hon. Josiah Quincy. 

2 Executive Document No. 132, Twenty-Seventh Congress, Third Session. 


82 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


Pursue the comparison still further. The expendi¬ 
tures of the University during the last year, for the 
general purposes of the College, the instruction of the 
Undergraduates, and for the Schools of Law and Divin¬ 
ity, amounted to $47,935. The cost of the Ohio for 
one year of service, in salaries, wages, and provisions, 
is $ 220,000, — being $ 172,000 above the annual expen¬ 
ditures of the University, and more than four times as 
much as those expenditures. In other words, for the 
annual sum lavished on a single ship of the lin Q,four 
institutions like Harvard University might be sup¬ 
ported. 

Furthermore, the pay of the Captain of a ship like 
the Ohio is $ 4,500, when in service, — $ 3,500, when on 
leave of absence, or off duty. The salary of the Presi¬ 
dent of Harvard University is $2,235, without leave 
of absence, and never off duty. 

If the large endowments of Harvard University are 
dwarfed by comparison with a single ship of the line, 
how must it be with other institutions of learning and 
beneficence, less favored by the bounty of many genera¬ 
tions ? The average cost of a sloop of war is $ 315,000, — 
more, probably, than all the endowments of those twin 
stars of learning in the Western part of Massachusetts, 
the Colleges at Williamstown and Amherst, and of that 
single star in the East, the guide to many ingenuous 
youth, the Seminary at Andover. The yearly expense 
of a sloop of war in service is about $50,000, — more 
than the annual expenditures of these three institutions 
combined. 

I might press the comparison with other institutions 
of beneficence, — with our annual appropriations for 
the Blind, that noble and successful charity which 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


83 


sheds true lustre upon the Commonwealth, amount¬ 
ing to $ 12,000, and for the Insane, another charity 
dear to humanity, amounting to $27,844. 

Take all the institutions of Learning and Beneficence, 
the crown jewels of the Commonwealth, schools, col¬ 
leges, hospitals, asylums, and the sums by which they 
have been purchased and preserved are trivial and 
beggarly, compared with the treasures squandered with¬ 
in the borders of Massachusetts in vain Preparations 
for War, — upon the Navy Yard at Charlestown, with 
its stores on hand, costing $4,741,000, — the fortifi¬ 
cations in the harbors of Massachusetts, where untold 
sums are already sunk, and it is now proposed to sink 
$ 3,875,000 more, 1 — and the Arsenal at Springfield, con¬ 
taining, in 1842,175,118 muskets, valued at $ 2,099,998, 2 * 
and maintained by an annual appropriation of $ 200,000, 
whose highest value will ever be, in the judgment of all 
lovers of truth, that it inspired a poem which in in¬ 
fluence will be mightier than a battle, and will endure 
when arsenals and fortifications have crumbled to earth. 
Some of the verses of this Psalm of Peace may relieve 
the detail of statistics, while they happily blend with 
my argument. 

“ Were half the power that fills the world with terror, 

Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts, 

Given to redeem the human mind from error, 

There were no need of arsenals or forts: 

“ The warrior’s name would be a name abhorred, 

And every nation that should lift again 
Its hand against a brother on its forehead 

Would wear forevermore the curse of Cain.” 8 

1 Report of Secretary of War, Senate Document No. 2, Twenty-Seventh 
Congress, Second Session, — where we are asked to invest in a general sys¬ 
tem of land defences $ 51,677,929. 

2 Executive Document No. 3, Twenty-Seventh Congress, Third Session. 

8 Longfellow, The Arsenal at Springfield. 


84 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


Turn now to a high and peculiar interest of the 
nation, the administration of justice. Perhaps no part 
of our system is regarded with more pride and confi¬ 
dence, especially by the enlightened sense of the coun¬ 
try. To this, indeed, all other concerns of Government, 
with all its complications of machinery, are in a man¬ 
ner subordinate, since it is for the sake of justice that 
men come together in communities and establish laws. 
What part of the Government can compare in impor¬ 
tance with the National Judiciary, that great balance- 
wheel of the Constitution, controlling the relations of 
the several States to each other, the legislation of Con¬ 
gress and of the States, besides private interests to an 
incalculable amount ? Nor can the citizen who discerns 
the true glory of his country fail to recognize in the im¬ 
mortal judgments of Marshall, now departed, and of 
Story, who is still spared to us — serus in ccelum redeat! 
— a higher claim to admiration and gratitude than can 
be found in any triumph of battle. The expenses of 
this great department under the National Govern¬ 
ment, in 1842, embracing the cost of court-houses, the 
salaries of judges, the pay of juries, and of all the law 
officers throughout the United States, in short, all the 
outlay by which justice, according to the requirement 
of Magna Charta, is carried to every man’s door, 
amounted to $560,990, — a larger sum than is usually 
appropriated for this purpose, but how insignificant, 
compared with the cormorant demands of Army and 
Navy! 

Let me allude to one more curiosity of waste. By a 
calculation founded on the expenses of the Navy it 
appears that the average cost of each gun carried over 
the ocean for one year amounts to about fifteen thou- 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 85 

sand dollars, — a sum sufficient to maintain ten or even 
twenty professors of Colleges, and equal to the salaries 
of all the Judges of the Supreme Court of Massachu¬ 
setts and the Governor combined ! 

Such are illustrations of that tax which nations con¬ 
stituting the great Federation of Civilization, including 
our own country, impose on the people, in time of pro¬ 
found peace, for no permanent productive work, for no 
institution of learning, for no gentle charity, for no pur¬ 
pose of good. Wearily climbing from expenditure to 
expenditure, from waste to waste, we seem to pass be¬ 
yond the region of ordinary measurement; Alps on 
Alps arise, on whose crowning heights of everlasting 
cold, far above the habitations of man, where no green 
thing lives, where no creature draws breath, we behold 
the sharp, icy, flashing glacier of War. 

In the contemplation of this spectacle the soul swells 
with alternate despair and hope: with despair, at the 
thought of such wealth, capable of such service to Hu¬ 
manity, not merely wasted, but bestowed to perpetuate 
Hate; with hope, as the blessed vision arises of all 
these incalculable means secured to purposes of Peace. 
The whole world labors with poverty and distress; and 
the painful question occurs in Europe more than here, 
What shall become of the poor, — the increasing 
Standing Army of the poor ? Could the voice that now 
addresses you penetrate those distant councils, or coun¬ 
cils nearer home, it would say, Disband your Standing 
Armies of soldiers, employ your Navies in peaceful and 
enriching commerce, abandon Fortifications and Arse¬ 
nals, o: dedicate them to works of Beneficence, as the 
statue of Jupiter Capitolinus was changed to the image 


80 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


of a Christian saint; in fine, utterly renounce the pres¬ 
ent incongruous system of Armed Peace. 

That I may not seem to accept this conclusion too 
hastily, at least as regards our own country, I shall con¬ 
sider the asserted usefulness of the national arma¬ 
ments,— and then expose the fallacy, at least in the 
present age and among Christian nations, of the maxim, 
that in time of Peace we must prepare for War. 

For what use is the Standing Army of the United 
States ? For many generations it has been a principle 
of freedom to avoid a standing army; and one of the 
complaints in the Declaration of Independence was, 
that George the Third had quartered large bodies of 
troops in the Colonies. For the first years after the 
adoption of the National Constitution, during our period 
of weakness, before our power was assured, before our 
name had become respected in the family of nations, 
under the administration of Washington, a small sum 
was ample for the military establishment of the United 
States. It was at a later day that the country, touched 
by martial insanity, abandoned the true economy of a 
Republic, and, in imitation of monarchical powers, 
lavished means, grudged to Peace, in vain preparation 
for War. It may now be said of our Army, as Dunning 
said of the influence of the Crown, it has increased, is 
increasing, and ought to be diminished. At this mo¬ 
ment there are in the country more than sixty milita¬ 
ry posts. For any of these it would be difficult to pre¬ 
sent a reasonable apology, — unless, perhaps, on some 
distant Indian frontier. Of what use is the detach¬ 
ment of the Second Artillery at the quiet town of New 
London, in Connecticut ? Of what use is the detach- 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


87 


ment of the First Artillery in that pleasant resort of 
fashion, Newport ? By exhilarating music and showy 
parade they may amuse an idle hour; but is it not 
equally true that emotions of a different character will 
be aroused in thoughtful bosoms ? He must have 
lost something of sensibility to the dignity of human 
nature who can observe, without at least a passing 
regret, all the details of discipline — drill, marching, 
countermarching — which fill the life of the soldier, and 
prepare him to become the rude, inanimate part of that 
machine to which an army is likened by the great liv¬ 
ing master of the Art of War. 1 And this sensibility 
may be more disturbed by the spectacle of ingenuous 
youth, in chosen numbers, under the auspices of the 
Government, amidst the bewitching scenery of West 
Point, painfully trained to these same exercises, — at a 
cost to the country, since the establishment of this 
Academy, of above four millions of dollars. 

In Europe, Standing Armies are supposed to be 
needed in support of Government; but this excuse can¬ 
not prevail here. The monarchs of the Old World, like 
the chiefs of the ancient German tribes, are upborne on 
the shields of the soldiery. Happily, with us, Govern¬ 
ment needs no janizaries. The hearts of the people are 
a sufficient support. 

I hear a voice from some defender of this abuse, some 
upholder of this “ rotten borough,” crying, The Army is 
needed for defence! As well might you say that the 
shadow is needed for defence. For what is the Army 
of the United States, but the feeble shadow of the Amer¬ 
ican people ? In placing the Army on its present footing, 
so small in numbers, compared with the forces of great 


1 The Duke of Wellington. 


88 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


European States , our Government tacitly admits its super- 
jluousness for defence. It only remains to declare that 
the country will repose in the consciousness of right, 
without the extravagance of soldiers, unproductive con¬ 
sumers of the fruits of the earth, who might do the 
country good service in the various departments of 
useful industry. 

For what use is the Navy of the United States ? 
The annual expense of our Navy, during recent years, 
has been upwards of six millions of dollars. For what 
purpose ? Not for the apprehension of pirates, since 
frigates and ships of the line are of too great bulk for 
this service. Not for the suppression of the Slave 
Trade; for, under the stipulations with Great Britain, 
we employ only eighty guns in this holy alliance. Not 
to protect our coasts; for all agree that our few ships 
would form an unavailing defence against any serious 
attack. Not for these purposes, you admit; but for the 
protection of our Navigation. This is not the occasion 
for minute estimates. Suffice it to say, that an intelli¬ 
gent merchant, extensively engaged in commerce for the 
last twenty years, and who speaks, therefore, with the 
authority of knowledge, has demonstrated, in a tract of 
perfect clearness, 1 that the annual profits of the whole 
mercantile marine of the country do not equal the an¬ 
nual expenditure of our Navy. Admitting the profit 
of a merchant ship to be four thousand dollars a year, 
which is a large allowance, it will take the earnings of 
one hundred ships to build and employ for one year a 
single sloop of war, of one hundred and fifty ships to 
build and employ a frigate, and of nearly three hundred 

1 I refer to the pamphlet of S. E. Coues, “ United States Navy: What is 
its Use? ” 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


89 


ships to build and employ a ship of the line. Thus 
more than live hundred ships must do a profitable 
business to earn a sufficient sum for the support of 
this little fleet. Still further, taking a received esti¬ 
mate putting the mercantile marine of the United States 
at forty millions of dollars, we find that it is only a 
little more than six times the annual cost of the Navy; 
so that this interest is protected at a charge of more than 
fifteen per cent of its whole value ! Protection at such 
price is not less ruinous than one of Pyrrhus’s victories. 

It is to the Navy as an unnecessary arm of national 
defence, and part of the War establishment, that I con¬ 
fine my objection. So far as it is required for science, 
or for the police of the seas, — to scour them of pirates, 
and, above all, to defeat the hateful traffic in human 
flesh, — it is a fit engine of Government, and cannot be 
obnoxious as a portion of the machinery of War. But, 
surely, a most costly navy to protect navigation in time 
of Peace against assaults from civilized nations is ab¬ 
surdly superfluous. The free cities of Hamburg and 
Bremen, survivors of the powerful Hanseatic League, 
with a commerce whitening the most distant seas, are 
without a single ship of war. Following this prudent 
example, the United States might be willing to abandon 
an institution already become a vain and expensive 

t°y- 

For what use are the Fortifications of the United 
States t We have already seen the enormous sums 
locked in the odious mortmain of their everlasting 
masonry. Like the Pyramids, they seem by mass and 
solidity to defy Time. Nor can I doubt that hereafter, 
like these same monuments, they will be looked upon 
with wonder, as the types of an extinct superstition, not 


90 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


less degrading than that of Ancient Egypt. Under the 
pretence of saving the country from conquest and blood¬ 
shed they are reared. But whence the danger ? On 
what side ? What people to fear ? No civilized na¬ 
tion threatens our borders with rapine or trespass. 
None will. Nor, in the existing state of civilization, 
and under existing International Law, is it possible to 
suppose any war with such a nation, unless, renoun¬ 
cing the peaceful Tribunal of Arbitration, we volun¬ 
tarily appeal to Trial by Battle. The fortifications 
might be of service then. But perhaps they would 
invite the attack they might be inadequate to defeat. 
According to a modern rule, illustrated with admirable 
ability in the diplomatic correspondence of Mr. Web¬ 
ster, non-combatants and their property on land are 
not molested. So firmly did the Duke of Wellington 
act upon this rule, that, throughout the revengeful cam¬ 
paigns of Spain, and afterwards entering France, flushed 
with the victory of Waterloo, he directed his army to 
pay for all provisions, even the forage of their horses. 
War is carried on against public property, —against 
fortifications , navy-yards , and arsenals. If these do not 
exist, where is its aliment, where the fuel for the 
flame ? Paradoxical as it seems, and disparaging to the 
whole trade of War, it may be proper to inquire, wheth¬ 
er, according to acknowledged laws, now governing this 
bloody arbitrament, every new fortification and every 
additional gun in our harbor is not less a safeguard than 
a danger. Do they not draw the lightning of battle 
upon our homes, without, alas ! any conductor to hurry 
its terrors innocently beneath the concealing bosom of 
the earth ? 

For what use is the Militia of the United States ? 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


91 


This immense system spreads, with innumerable suck¬ 
ers, over the whole country, draining its best life-blood, 
the unbought energies of our youth. The same painful 
discipline which we observe in the soldier absorbs their 
time, though to a less degree than in the Eegular Army. 
Theirs also is the savage pomp of War. We read with 
astonishment of the painted flesh and uncouth vest¬ 
ments of our progenitors, the ancient Britons. But the 
generation will come, that must regard with equal won¬ 
der the pictures of their ancestors closely dressed in 
padded and well-buttoned coats of blue “besmeared 
with gold,” surmounted by a huge mountain-cap of 
shaggy bear-skin, and with a barbarous device, typical 
of brute force, a tiger , painted on oil-skin tied with 
leather to their backs ! In the streets of Pisa the 
galley-slaves are compelled to wear dresses stamped 
with the name of the crime for which they are suffering 
punishment, — as theft, robbery, murder. Is it not a 
little strange that Christians, living in a land “ where 
bells have tolled to church,” should voluntarily adopt 
devices which, if they have any meaning, recognize 
the example of beasts as worthy of imitation by man ? 

The general considerations belonging to Preparations 
for War illustrate the inanity of the Militia for pur¬ 
poses of national defence. I do not know, indeed, that 
it is now strongly urged on this ground. It is oftener 
approved as an important part of the police. I would 
not undervalue the advantage of an active, efficient, 
ever-w r akeful police; and I believe that such a police 
has been long required. But the Militia, where youth 
and character are without the strength of experience, is 
inadequate for this purpose. No person who has seen 
this arm of the police in an actual riot can hesitate in 


92 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


this judgment. A very small portion of the means 
absorbed by the Militia would provide a substantial 
police, competent to all the domestic emergencies of 
disorder and violence. The city of Boston has discarded 
a Fire Department composed of accidental volunteers. 
Why not do the same with the police, and set another 
example to the country ? 

/ I am well aware that efforts to reduce the Militia 
' are encountered by some of the dearest prejudices of the 
common mind, — not only by the War Spirit, but by 
I that other, which first animates childhood, and, at a 
later day, “ children of a larger growth,” inviting to 
finery of dress and parade, — the same which fantasti¬ 
cally bedecks the dusky feather-cinctured chief of the 
j soft regions warmed by the tropical sun, — which in- 
| serts a ring in the nose of the North American Indian, 

| —which slits the ears of the Australian savage, and 
; tattoos the New Zealand cannibal. 

Such are the national armaments, in their true char¬ 
acter and value. Thus far I have regarded them in 
the plainest light of ordinary worldly economy, without 
reference to those higher considerations, drawn from 
the nature and history of man and the truths of Chris¬ 
tianity, which pronounce them vain. It is grateful to 
know, that, though having yet the support of what 
Jeremy Taylor calls “ popular noises,” the other more 
economical, more humane, more wise, more Christian 
system is daily commending itself to good people. On 
its side are all the virtues that truly elevate a state. 
Economy, sick of pygmy efforts to stanch the smallest 
fountain and rill of exuberant expenditure, pleads that 
here is a measureless, fathomless, endless river, an 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


93 


Amazon of waste, rolling its prodigal waters turbidly, 
ruinously, hatefully, to the sea. It chides us with 
unnatural inconsistency, when we strain at a little 
twine and paper, and swallow the monstrous cables 
and armaments of War. Humanity pleads for the 
surpassing interests of Knowledge and Benevolence, 
from which such mighty means are withdrawn. Wis¬ 
dom frowns on these Preparations, as nursing senti¬ 
ments inconsistent with Peace; Christianity calmly 
rebukes the spirit in which they have their origin, as 
of little faith, and treacherous to her high behests; 
while History, exhibiting the sure, though gradual, 
Progress of Man, points with unerring finger to that 
destiny of True Grandeur, when nations, like individu¬ 
als, disowning War as a proper Arbiter of Justice, shall 
abandon the oppressive apparatus of Armies, Navies, 
and Fortifications, by which it is waged. 

Before considering the familiar injunction, In time of 
Peace prepare for War , I hope I shall not seem to de¬ 
scend from the proper sphere of this discussion, if I 
refer to the parade of barbarous mottoes , and of emblems 
from beasts , as another impediment to the proper ap¬ 
preciation of these Preparations. These mottoes and 
emblems, prompting to War, are obtruded on the very 
ensigns of power and honor, and, careless of their dis¬ 
creditable import, men learn to regard them with 
patriotic pride. In the armorial bearings of nations 
and individuals, beasts and birds of prey are the ex¬ 
emplars of True Grandeur. The lion appears on the 
flag of England; the leopard on the flag of Scotland; 
a double-headed eagle spreads its wings on the imperial 
standard of Austria, and again on that of Bussia; while 


94 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


a single-headed eagle was adopted on the Napoleonic 
seal, and thus far the same single-headed bird is enough 
for Prussia. The pennons of knights, after exhausting 
the known kingdom of Nature, were disfigured by 
imaginary and impossible monsters, griffins, hippogriffs, 
unicorns, all intended to represent the exaggeration of 
brute force. The people of Massachusetts unconsciously 
adopt this early standard. The escutcheon used as the 
seal of the State has an unfortunate combination, to 
which I refer briefly by way of example. On that part 
in the language of heraldry termed the shield stands 
an Indian with a bow in his hand, — certainly no 
agreeable memento, except to those who find honor in 
the disgraceful wars where our fathers robbed and 
murdered King Philip of Pokanoket, and his tribe, 
rightful possessors of the soil. The crest is a raised 
arm holding a drawn sabre in a threatening attitude , — 
being precisely the emblem once borne on the flag of 
Algiers. The scroll , or legend, is the latter of two 
favorite verses, in modern Latin, which are not traced 
to any origin more remote than Algernon Sidney, by 
whom they were inscribed in an album at Copen¬ 
hagen : — 

“ Manus haec inimica tyrannis 
Ense petit placidam sub libertate quiet em .” 1 

1 The Earl of Leicester, father of Sidney, in an anxious letter, August 30, 
1660, writes his son : “ It is said that the University of Copenhagen brought 
their Album unto you, desiring you to write something therein, and that you 
did scribere in Albo these words [setting forth the verses], and put your 
name to it ”; and then he adds, “ This cannot but be publicly known, if it 

be true.Either you must live in exile or very privately here, and 

perhaps not safely.” The restoration of Charles the Second had just taken 
place. (Meadley, Memoirs of Algernon Sidney, pp. 84, 323-325.) Lord 
Molesworth, in a work which first appeared in 1694, mentions the verses as 
written by Sidney in “ the Book of Mottoes in the King’s Library,” and then 
tells the story, that the French Ambassador, who did not know a word of 



THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


95 


With singular unanimity, the Legislature of Massa¬ 
chusetts has expressed an earnest desire for the estab¬ 
lishment of a High Court of Nations to adjudge inter¬ 
national controversies, and thus supersede the Arbitra¬ 
ment of War. It would be an act of moral dignity 
consistent with these professions, and becoming the 
character it vaunts before the world, if it abandoned 
the bellicose escutcheon, — at least, that Algerine em¬ 
blem, fit only for corsairs, if not also the Latin motto 
with its menace of the sword. If a Latin substi¬ 
tute for the latter be needed, it might be those words 
of Virgil, “ Pcicisque imponere morem ,” 1 or that sen¬ 
tence of noble truth from Cicero, “ Sine summa justitia 
rempublicam geri nullo modo posse ” : 2 the first a hom¬ 
age to Peace, and the second a consecration to Justice. 
Where such a spirit prevailed, there would be little 
occasion to consider the question of War Prepara¬ 
tions. 

Massachusetts is not alone in the bellicose anachro¬ 
nism of her banner. The nation is in the same cate¬ 
gory. Our fathers would have hesitated long before 
accepting the eagle for the national escutcheon, had 
they recalled the pungent words of Erasmus on this 
most unrepublican bird. “ Let any physiognomist, not 
a blunderer in his trade,” says this most learned 
scholar, “ consider the look and features of an eagle, 
those rapacious and wicked eyes, that menacing curve of 
the beak, those cruel cheeks, that stern front, — will he 

Latin, on learning their meaning, tore them from the book, as a libel on the 
French government, and its influence in Denmark. (Molesworth, Account 
of Denmark, Preface.) The inference from this narrative would seem to be 
that the verses were by Sidney himself. 

l JSneid, VI. 852. 

3 De Republica, Lib. II. cap. 43. 


96 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


not at once recognize the image of a Icing , a magnificent 
and majestic king? Add to these a dark, ill-omened 
color, an unpleasing, dreadful, appalling voice, and that 
threatening scream at which every kind of animal trem¬ 
bles.” Proceeding with his indictment, he describes 
the eagle in old age as satisfied with nothing but blood, 
with which he prolongs his hateful life, the upper man¬ 
dible growing so that he cannot feed on flesh, while the 
natural rapacity continues, — all of which typifies the 
wicked prince. But the scholar becomes orator, when, 
after mentioning that there are innumerable species of 
birds, some admirable for richness of plumage, some 
remarkable for snowy whiteness, some shining with 
befitting blackness, some pre-eminent in bodily stature, 
some notable for fecundity, some grateful at the rich 
banquet, some pleasant from loquacity, some captivating 
in song, some distinguished for courage, some created 
for the entertainment of man, — he proceeds to say: 
“ Of all birds, the eagle alone has seemed to wise men 
the apt type of royalty: not beautiful, not musical, not 
fit for food, — but carnivorous, ravenous, plundering, 
destroying, fighting, solitary, hateful to all, the curse 
of all, and though able to do the greatest harm, yet 
wishing to do more than he can.” 1 Erasmus, who says 
this and much more, is no mean authority. Brightest 
and best among the scholars who illustrated the modern 
revival of letters, loving peace, and detesting kings, he 
acquired a contemporary power and fame such as letters 
never bestowed before, if since,— at least until Voltaire, 
kindred in versatile genius, mounted the throne. In 
all the homage profusely offered to the latter there was 

1 Erasmi Adagia, Chil. III. Cent. VII. Prov. 1: Scarabceus aquilam queer it, 
Hallam, Literature of Europe, Part I. ch. 4. sec. 43, 44. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


97 


nothing stronger than that of Luther to Erasmus, when 
the great Reformer asked, “ Who is the man whose soul 
Erasmus does not occupy, whom Erasmus does not in¬ 
struct, over whom Erasmus does not reign ? ” His face 
is still familiar from the devotion of two great artists, 
Albert Dtirer and Hans Holbein, each of whom has left 
to us his portrait, — while he is commemorated by a 
bronze statue in Rotterdam, his birthplace, and by a 
monument in the ancient cathedral at Basel, where 
he died. It is this renowned scholar who castigates 
our eagle. Doubtless for fighting qualities this royal 
bird was transferred to the coin and seal of a Republic. 
His presence there shows the spirit which unconsciously 
prevailed; and this same presence, beyond all question, 
exercises a certain influence, especially with the young, 
nursing a pride in that beak and those pounces which 
are the menace of War. 

The maxim, In time of Peace prepare for War} is 
transmitted from distant ages, when brute force was 
the general law. It is the terrible inheritance which 
painfully reminds present generations of their connec¬ 
tion with the Past. It belongs to the dogmas of bar¬ 
barism. It is the companion of harsh, tyrannical rules 
by which the happiness of the many is offered up to 
the few. It is the child of suspicion, and the forerun- 

l If countenance were needed in thus exposing a pernicious maxim, I 
might find it in the German philosopher Kant, whose work on Perpetual 
Peace treats it with very little respect. (Kant, Sammtliche Werke, Band 
VII., Zum Ewigen Frieden , § 1.) Since this Oration, Sir Robert Peel and 
the Earl of Aberdeen, each Prime Minister of England, and practically con¬ 
versant with the question, have given their valuable testimony in the same 
direction. Life has its surprises; and I confess one in my own, when the 
latter, in conversation on this maxim, most kindly thanked me for what I 
had said against it. 


98 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


ner of violence. Having in its favor almost uninter¬ 
rupted usage, it possesses a hold on popular opinion not 
easily unloosed. And yet no conscientious man can 
fail, on careful observation, to detect its mischievous 
fallacy, — at least among Christian nations in the present 
age, — a fallacy the most costly the world has wit¬ 
nessed, dooming nations to annual tribute in com¬ 
parison with which the extortions of conquest are as 
the widow’s mite. So true is what Rousseau said, and 
Guizot has since repeated, that “ a bad principle is far 
worse than a bad fact”; for the operations of the 
latter are finite, while those of the former are infi¬ 
nite. 

I speak of this principle with earnestness; for I 
believe it erroneous and false, founded in ignorance 
and wrong, unworthy of civilization, and disgraceful to 
Christians. I call it a principle; but it is a mere pre¬ 
judice, — sustained by vulgar example only, and not by 
enlightened truth, — obeying which, we imitate the early 
mariners, who, steering from headland to headland, 
hugged the shore, unwilling to venture upon the broad 
ocean, with the luminaries of heaven for their guide. 
If not yet discerned in its true character, it is because 
the clear light of truth is discolored and refracted by an 
atmosphere where the cloud of War covers all. 

Dismissing the actual usage on the one side, and con¬ 
siderations of economy on the other, I would regard 
these Preparations in the simple light of reason, in a 
just appreciation of the nature of man, and in the in¬ 
junctions of the highest trtith. Our conclusion will 
be very easy. They are twice pernicious, and whoso 
would vindicate them must satisfactorily answer these 
two objections: first, that they inflame the people, ex- 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 99 

citing to deeds of violence, otherwise alien to the mind; 
and, secondly , that, having their origin in the low motives 
of distrust and hate, inevitably, by a sure law of the hu¬ 
man mind, they excite to corresponding action in other 
nations. Thus, in fact, are they promoters of War, 
rather than preservers of Peace. 

In illustration of the first objection, it will occur at 
once to every inquirer that the possession of power is 
in itself dangerous, tempting the purest and highest, 
and too rarely enjoyed without abuse. Nor is the 
power to employ force in War an exception. Nations 
possessing the greatest armaments are the most bellige¬ 
rent. It is the feebler powers which enjoy eras of 
Peace. Throughout more than seven hundred years of 
Roman history resounds the din of War, with only two 
short lulls of Peace; and in modern times this din has 
been echoed from France. But Switzerland has had no 
din. Less prepared, this Republic had less incentive to 
War. Not only in nations do we find this law. It ap¬ 
plies to individuals also. The same din which resounded 
in Rome and was echoed from France has filled common 
life, and from the same cause. The wearing of arms has 
been a provocative, too often exciting, as it furnished the 
weapon of strife. The odious system of private quar¬ 
rels, with altercation and hostile meetings even in the 
street, disgracing the social life of modern Europe, con¬ 
tinued with this habit. This was its origin. But who 
can measure the extent of its influence ? Dead bodies 
stretched on the pavements, and vacant chairs at home, 
were the contemporary witnesses. If death was hasty 
and unpremeditated, it was only according to the law 
of such encounter. Poets and authors, wearing arms, 
were exposed to the rude chances. The dramatist Mar- 


100 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


lowe, in some respects almost Shakespearian, “ renowned 
for his rare art and wit,” perished ignominiously under 
the weapon of a vulgar adversary; and Savage, whose 
genius and misfortune inspired the friendship and praise 
of Samuel Johnson, was tried at the Old Bailey for 
murder committed in a sudden broil. Nothing of this 
could have occurred without the habit of wearing arms, 
which was a fashion. Out of this came the Dance of 
Death. 

This pernicious influence is illustrated by Judge Jay 
with admirable plainness. He shows the individual as 
an example to nations. Listen, a moment, to what he 
says so well. a The expert swordsman, the practised 
marksman, is ever more ready to engage in personal 
combats than the man who is unaccustomed to the use of 
deadly weapons. In those portions of our country where 
it is supposed essential to personal safety to go armed 
with pistols and bowie-knives mortal affrays are so fre¬ 
quent as to excite but little attention, and to secure, with 
exceedingly rare exceptions, perfect impunity to the 
murderer; whereas at the North and East, where we are 
unprovided with such facilities for taking life, compara¬ 
tively few murders of the kind are perpetrated. We 
might, indeed, safely submit the decision of the princi¬ 
ple we are discussing to the calculations of pecuniary 
interest. Let two men, equal in age and health, apply 
for an insurance on their lives, — one known to be ever 
armed to defend his honor and his life against every 
assailant, and the other a meek, unresisting Quaker: can 
we doubt for a moment which of these men would be 
deemed by an Insurance Company most likely to reach 
a good old age ? ” 1 

1 Address before the American Peace Society, pp. 23, 24. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUK OF NATIONS. 


101 


With this practical statement and its strong sense I 
leave this objection to War Preparations, adding a sin¬ 
gle supplementary remark, — What is good for the in¬ 
dividual is good for nations. 

The second objection, though different in character, is 
not less operative. It is founded on that law of hu¬ 
man nature according to which the very hate or dis¬ 
trust to which these Preparations testify excites in 
others a corresponding sentiment. This law is general 
and fundamental. Though rarely recognized by nations 
as a rule of conduct, it was never without its influence 
on individuals. Indeed, it is little more than a practi¬ 
cal illustration of the Horatian adage, Si vis me Jlere, 
dolendum est primum ipsi tibi: If you wish me to weep, 
you must yourself first grieve. Nobody questions its 
truth or applicability. But does it not proclaim that 
War Preparations in a period of professed Peace must 
naturally prompt adverse Preparations, and everywhere 
within the circle of their influence quicken the Spirit 
of War ? So are we all knit together that the feelings 
in our own bosoms awaken corresponding feelings in 
the bosoms of others, — as harp answers to harp in its 
softest vibration, as deep responds to deep in the might 
of its power. What in us is good invites the good in 
our brother; generosity begets generosity; love wins 
love; Peace secures Peace; — while all in us that is bad 
challenges the bad in our brother; distrust engenders 
distrust; hate provokes hate; War arouses War. There¬ 
fore are we admonished to avoid such appeal, and this 
is the voice of Nature itself. 

This beautiful law is everywhere. The wretched 
maniac, in whose mind the common principles of con¬ 
duct are overthrown, confesses its overruling power; 


102 


THE TKUE GKANDEUE OF NATIONS. 


and the vacant stare of madness is illumined by a word 
of love. The wild beasts confess it: and what is the 
story of Orpheus, whose music drew in listening rapture 
the lions and panthers of the forest, or of St. Jerome, 
whose kindness soothed the lion to lie down at his feet, 
hut expressions of its prevailing power ? 1 

Even a fable may testify. I would not be tempted 
too far, but, at the risk of protracting this discussion, I 
cannot forget illustrations which show how poetry at 
least, if not history, has interpreted the heart of man. 

Looking back to the historic dawn, one of the most 
touching scenes illumined by that auroral light is the 
peaceful visit of the aged Priam to the tent of Achilles, 
entreating the body of his son. The fierce combat end¬ 
ed in the death of Hector, whose unhonored corse the 
bloody Greek has trailed behind his chariot. After 
twelve days of grief, the venerable father is moved to 
seek the remains of the son he has so dearly loved. 
He leaves his lofty cedarn chamber, and with a single 
aged attendant, unarmed, repairs to the Grecian camp 
beside the distant sounding sea. Entering alone, he 
finds Achilles in his tent, with two of his chiefs. Grasp¬ 
ing his knees, the father kisses those terrible homicidal 
hands which had taken the life of his son. Touched by 
the sight which he beholds, the heart of the inflamed, 
the angry, the inflexible Achilles responds to the feelings 

1 Scholars will remember the incident recorded by Homer in the Odys¬ 
sey (XIV. 30, 31), where Ulysses, on reaching his loved Ithaca, is beset by 
dogs, described as wild beasts in ferocity, who rush towards him barking; 
but he, with craft (that is the word of Homer), seats himself upon the 
ground and lets his staff fall from his hand. A similar incident is noticed by 
Mr. Mure, in his entertaining travels in Greece, and also by Mr. Borrow, in 
his “ Bible in Spain.” Pliny remarks, that all dogs may be appeased in the 
same way: “ Impetus eorum et scevitia mitigatur ab homine considente humi." 
Nat. Hist., Lib. VIII. cap. 40. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


103 


of Priam. He takes the suppliant by the hand, seats 
him by his side, consoles his grief, refreshes his weary 
body, and concedes to the prayers of a weak, unarmed 
old man what all Troy in arms could not win. In this 
scene, which fills a large space in the Iliad , 1 the master 
poet, with unconscious power, has presented a picture 
of the omnipotence of that law, making all mankind 
of kin, in obedience to which no word of kindness, no 
act of confidence, falls idly to the earth. 

Among the early passages of Roman history, per¬ 
haps none makes a deeper impression than that scene, 
after the Roman youth were consumed at the Allia, and 
the invading Gauls under Brennus had entered the city, 
where in a temple were seated the venerable Senators 
of the Republic, too old to flee, and careless of surviv¬ 
ing the Roman name, each on his curule chair, unarmed, 
looking, as Livy says, more august than mortal, and 
with the majesty of the gods. The Gauls gaze as upon 
sacred images; and the hand of slaughter, which had 
raged through the streets of Rome, is stayed by the 
sight of an unarmed assembly. This continued until 
one of the invaders standing nearest reached his hand 
to stroke gently the silver beard of a Senator, who, in¬ 
dignant at the license, smote the barbarian with his 
ivory staff, which was the signal for general vengeance. 
Think you that a band of savages could have slain these 
Senators, if the appeal to Force had not been made first 
by one of their own number ? This story, though re¬ 
counted by Livy, and also by Plutarch , 2 is repudiated 
by Niebuhr; but it is none the less interesting as a 
legend, attesting the law by which hostile feelings are 
aroused or subdued. 

2 Liv., Lib. V. cap. 41. Plutarch, Life of Camillus. 


l Book XXIV. 


104 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


This great scene, in its essential parts, has been re¬ 
peated in another age and country. The theatre was 
an African wilderness, with Christian converts for Ro¬ 
man Senators. The little band, with their pastor, who 
was a local chief, assembled on a Sabbath morning for 
prayer, when suddenly robbers came upon them, as the 
Gauls upon Rome, and demanded cattle. The pastor, 
asking his people to sit still, calmly pointed to the cat¬ 
tle, and then turned back to unite with the rest in 
prayer. The robbers, like the Gauls, looked on in 
silence, awed into forbearance, until they quietly with¬ 
drew, injuring nobody and touching nothing. Such 
an instance, which is derived from the report of mis¬ 
sionaries , 1 testifies again to the might of meekness, 
and proves that the Roman story, though reduced 
to the condition of a legend, is in harmony with actual 
life. 

An admired picture by Virgil, in his melodious epic, 
furnishes similar testimony. The Trojan fleet, beaten 
by tempest on the raging waves, is about to succumb, 
when the God of the Sea, suddenly appearing in tran¬ 
quil power, stills the hostile elements, as a man vener¬ 
able for piety and deserts by a gentle word assuages a 
furious populace just breaking into sedition and out¬ 
rage . 2 The sea and the populace were equally appeased. 
Alike in the god and the man was the same peaceful 
presence. Elsewhere is this same influence. Guizot, 
illustrates this same influence, when, describing the 
development of mediaeval civilization, he exhibits an 
angry multitude subdued by an unarmed man, em- 

1 Moffat, Missionary Labors and Scenes in Southern Africa, Ch. 32. 

2 “ Ille regit dictis animos et pectora mulcet.” 

^Eneid, I. 146 -154. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


105 


ploying the word instead of the sword} And surely 
no reader of that noble historical romance, the Pro- 
messi Sposi, can forget that finest scene, where Fra 
Cristoforo, in an age of violence, after slaying his 
comrade in a broil, presents himself unarmed and peni¬ 
tent before the family and retainers of his victim, and 
by dignified gentleness awakens the admiration of 
men raging against him. Both hemispheres are at 
this moment occupied with the popular romance, Le 
Juif Errant , by Eugene Sue, where is an interesting 
picture of Christian courage superior to the trained vio¬ 
lence of the soldier. Another example, made familiar 
by recent translations of Frithiofs Saga, the Swedish 
epic , 2 is more emphatic. The scene is a battle. Frithiof 
is in deadly combat with Atle, when the falchion of the 
latter breaks. Throwing away his own weapon, Frithiof 
says, — 

“ Swordless foeman's life 
Ne'er dyed this gallant blade." 

The two champions now close in mutual clutch; they 
hug like bears, says the poet. 

“ ’T is o’er ; for Frithiofs matchless strength 
Has felled his ponderous size, 

And ’neath that knee, a giant length, 

Supine the Viking lies. 

* But fails my sword, thou Berserk swart,* 

The voice rang far and wide, 

‘ Its point should pierce thy inmost heart, 

Its hilt should drink the tide.’ 

‘ Be free to lift the weaponed hand,’ 

Undaunted Atld spoke; 

Hence, fearless, quest thy distant brand: 

Thus I abide the stroke.’ ” 

Frithiof regains his sword, intent to close the dread de- 

1 Guizot, Histoire de la Civilisation en France, Tom. II. p. 36. 

2 Longfellow, Poets and Poetry of Europe, p. 101: Tegn<$r. 


106 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


bate, while his adversary awaits the stroke; but his heart 
responds to the generous courage of his foe; he cannot 
injure one who has shown such confidence in him. 

“ This quelled his ire , this checked his arm , 

Outstretched the hand of peace." 

I cannot leave these illustrations without alluding 
again to the treatment of the insane, teaching, by con¬ 
clusive example, how strong in Nature must be the 
responsive principle. On proposing to remove the heavy- 
chains from the raving maniacs of the Paris hospitals, 
the benevolent Pinel w 7 as regarded as one who saw 
visions or dreamed dreams. At last his wishes were 
gratified. The change in the patients was immediate; 
the wrinkled front of warring passion was smoothed into 
the serene countenance of Peace. The treatment by 
Force is now universally abandoned; the law of kind¬ 
ness takes its place; and these unfortunates mingle to¬ 
gether, unvexed by restraints implying suspicion, and 
therefore arousing opposition. What an example to 
nations, who are little better than insane! The an¬ 
cient hospitals, with their violent madness, making con¬ 
fusion and strife, are a dark, but feeble, type of the 
Christian nations, obliged to wear the intolerable chains 
of War, assimilating the world to one great madhouse; 
while the peace and good-will now abounding in these 
retreats are the happy emblems of what awaits man¬ 
kind when at last we practically recognize the suprem¬ 
acy of those higher sentiments which are at once a 
strength and a charm, — 

“ making their future might 
Magnetic o’er the fixed, untrembling heart.” 

I might dwell also on recent experience, so full of 
delightful wisdom, in the treatment of the distant, de- 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


107 


graded convict of New South Wales, showing how con¬ 
fidence and kindness on the part of overseers awaken a 
corresponding sentiment even in outcasts, from whose 
souls virtue seems blotted out. 

Thus, from all quarters and sources — the far-off 
Past, the far-away Pacific, the verse of the poet, the 
legend of history, the cell of the mad-house, the con¬ 
gregation of transported criminals, the experience of 
daily life, the universal heart of man — ascends spon¬ 
taneous tribute to that law according to which we 
respond to the sentiments by which we are addressed, 
whether of love or hate, of confidence or distrust. 

If it be urged that these instances are exceptional, 
I reply at once, that it is not so. They are indubitable 
evidence of the real man, revealing the divinity of 
Humanity, out of which goodness, happiness, true great¬ 
ness can alone proceed. They disclose susceptibilities 
confined to no particular race, no special period of time, 
no narrow circle of knowledge or refinement, but pres¬ 
ent wherever two or more human beings come together, 
and strong in proportion to their virtue and intelli¬ 
gence. Therefore on the nature of man, as impregnable 
ground, do I place the fallacy of this most costly and 
pernicious prejudice. 

Nor is Human Nature the only witness : Christianity 
testifies in familiar texts, and then again by holiest lips. 
Augustine, in one of his persuasive letters, protests, 
with proverbial heart of flame, against turning Peace 
into .a Preparation for War, and then tells the soldier 
whom he addresses to be pacific even in war} From 

1 “ Non enim pax quseritur ut bellum excitetur.Esto ergo etiam bel- 

lando pacificus.” — Augustini Epistola CCV., ad Bonifacium Comitem: 
Opera, Tom. II. p. 318. 



108 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


the religion of his Master the great Christian saint had 
learned that Love is more puissant than Force. To the 
reflecting mind, the Omnipotence of God himself is 
less discernible in earthquake and storm than in the 
gentle, but quickening, rays of the sun, and the sweet 
descending dews. He is a careless observer who does 
not recognize the superiority of gentleness and kindness 
in exercising influence or securing rights among men. 
As the storms of violence beat upon us, we hug man¬ 
tles gladly thrown aside under the warmth of a genial 
sun. 

Christianity not only teaches the superiority of Love 
to Force, it positively enjoins the practice of the for¬ 
mer, as a constant, primal duty. It says, “ Love your 
neighbors ”; but it does not say, “ In time of Peace 
rear the massive fortification, build the man-of-war, en¬ 
list standing armies, train militia, and accumulate mili¬ 
tary stores, to overawe and menace your neighbor.” 
It directs that we should do to others as we would 
have them do to us, — a golden rule for all; but how 
inconsistent is that distrust in obedience to which 
nations professing peace sleep like soldiers on their 
arms ! Nor is this all. Its precepts inculcate patience, 
forbearance, forgiveness of evil, even the duty of benefit¬ 
ing a destroyer, “ as the sandal-wood, in the instant 
of its overthrow, sheds perfume on the axe which fells 
it.” Can a people in whom this faith is more than an 
idle word authorize such enormous sacrifices to pamper 
the Spirit of War ? Thus far nations have drawn their 
weapons from earthly armories, unmindful that there 
are others of celestial temper. 

The injunction, “ Love one another,” is as applicable 
to nations as to individuals. It is one of the great laws 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


109 


of Heaven. And nations, like individuals, may well 
measure their nearness to God and to liis glory by the 
conformity of their conduct to this duty. 

In response to arguments founded on economy, the 
true nature of man, and Christianity, I hear the skepti¬ 
cal note of some advocate of the transmitted order of 
things, some one among the “ fire-worshippers ” of War, 
saying, All this is beautiful, but visionary ; it is in ad¬ 
vance of the age, which is not yet prepared for the great 
change. To such I answer: Nothing can be beautiful 
that is not true; but all this is true, and the time has 
come for its acceptance. Now is the dawning day, and 
now the fitting hour. 

The name of Washington is invoked as authority for 
a prejudice which Economy, Human Nature, and Chris¬ 
tianity repudiate. Mighty and reverend as is his name, 
more mighty and more reverend is Truth. The words 
of counsel which he gave were in accordance with the 
spirit of his age, — which was not shocked by the 
slave-trade. But his great soul, which loved virtue 
and inculcated justice and benevolence, frowns upon 
those who would use his authority as an incentive 
to War. God forbid that his sacred character should 
be profanely stretched, like the skin of John Ziska, on 
a militia-drum, to arouse the martial ardor of the Ameri¬ 
can people ! 

The practice of Washington, during the eight years 
of his administration, compared with that of the last 
eight years for which we have the returns, may explain 
his real opinions. His condemnation of the present 
wasteful system speaks to us from the following table . 1 

l Executive Document No. 15, Twenty-eighth Congress, First Session. 


110 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


Years. 

Military 

Establishment. 

Naval 

Establishment. 

1789-91 

$835,618 

$570 

1792 

1,223,594 

53! 

1793 

1,237,620 


1794 

2,733,539 

61,409 

1795 

2,573,059 

410,562 

1796 

1,474,672 

274.784 

Total, during eight 
years of Washington, 

} $ 10,078,102 

$747,378 

1835 

$9,420,313 

$3,864,939 

1836 

19,667,166 

5,807,718 

1837 

20,702,929 

6,646,915 

1838 

20,557,473 

6,131,581 

1839 

14,588,664 

6,182,294 

1840 

12,030,624 

6,113,897 

1841 

13,704,882 

6,001,077 

1842 

9,188,469 

8,397,243 

Total, during eight 
recent years, 

} $119,860,520 

$49,145,664 


Thus the expenditures for the national armaments un¬ 
der the sanction of Washington were less than eleven 
million dollars, while during a recent similar period of 
eight years they amounted to upwards of one hundred 
and sixty-nine millions ,—an increase of nearly fifteen 
hundred per cent ! To him who quotes the precept of 
Washington I commend the example. He must be 
strongly possessed by the martial mania who will not 
confess, that, in this age, when the whole world is at 
peace, and our national power is assured, there is less 
need of these Preparations than in an age convulsed 
with War, when our national power was little respected. 
The only semblance of argument in their favor is the 
increased wealth of the country; but the capacity to 
endure taxation is no criterion of its justice, or even of 
its expediency. 

Another fallacy is also invoked, that whatever is is 
right. A barbarous practice is elevated above all those 











THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


Ill 


authorities by which these Preparations are condemned. 
We are made to count principles as nothing, because 
not yet recognized by nations. But they are practically 
applied in the relations of individuals, towns, counties, 
and states in our Union. All these have disarmed. It 
remains only that they should be extended to the 
grander sphere of nations. Be it our duty to proclaim 
the principles, whatever the practice. Through us let 
Truth speak. 

From the past and the present auspicious omens 
cheer us for the future. The terrible wars of the 
French Bevolution were the violent rending of the 
body preceding the exorcism of the fiend. Since the 
morning stars first sang together, the world has not wit¬ 
nessed a peace so harmonious and enduring as that 
which now blesses the Christian nations. Great ques¬ 
tions, fraught with strife, and in another age heralds 
of War, are now determined by Mediation or Arbitra¬ 
tion. Great political movements, which a few short 
years ago must have led to bloody encounter, are now 
conducted by peaceful discussion. Literature, the press, 
and innumerable societies, all join in the work of incul¬ 
cating good-will to man. The Spirit of Humanity per¬ 
vades the best writings, whether the elevated philo¬ 
sophical inquiries of the “ Vestiges of the Creation,” the 
ingenious, but melancholy, moralizings of the “ Story of 
a Feather,” or the overflowing raillery of “ Punch.” Nor 
can the breathing thought and burning word of poet or 
orator have a higher inspiration. Genius is never so 
Promethean as when it bears the heavenly fire to the 
hearths of men. 

In the last age, Dr. Johnson uttered the detestable 


112 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


sentiment, that he liked “ a good Hater.” The man of 
this age will say that he likes “ a good Lover.” Thus 
reversing the objects of regard, he follows a higher wis¬ 
dom and a purer religion than the renowned moralist 
knew. He recognizes that peculiar Heaven-born senti¬ 
ment, the Brotherhood of Man, soon to become the de¬ 
cisive touchstone of human institutions. He confesses 
the power of Love, destined to enter more and more 
into the concerns of life. And as Love is more heaven¬ 
ly than Hate, so must its influence redound more to the 
true glory of man and the approval of God. A Chris¬ 
tian poet — whose few verses bear him with unflagging 
wing in immortal flight — has joined this sentiment 
with Prayer. Thus he speaks, in words of uncommon 
pathos and power : — 

“ He prayeth well who lovetli well 
Both man and bird and beast. 

“ He prayeth best who loveth best 
All things, both great and small*, 

For the dear God who loveth us, 

He made and loveth all.” 1 

The ancient Law of Hate is yielding to the Law of 
Love. It is seen in manifold labors of philanthropy 
and in missions of charity. It is seen in institutions 
for the insane, the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the poor, 
the outcast, — in generous efforts to relieve those who 
are in prison, — in public schools, opening the gates of 
knowledge to all the children of the land. It is seen in 
the diffusive amenities of social life, and in the increas¬ 
ing fellowship of nations ; also in the rising opposition 
to Slavery and to War. 

There are yet other special auguries of this great 

1 Coleridge, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Part VII. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


113 


change, auspicating, in the natural progress of man, the 
abandonment of all international Preparations for War. 
To these I allude briefly, but with a deep conviction of 
their significance. 

Look at the Past, and see how War itself is changed, 
so that its oldest “ fire-worshipper ” would hardly know 
it. At first nothing but savagery, witli disgusting rites, 
whether in the North American Indian with Powhatan 
as chief, or the earlier Assyrian with Nebuchadnezzar as 
king, but yielding gradually to the influence of civiliza¬ 
tion. With the Greeks it was less savage, but always 
barbarous, — also with Pome always barbarous. Too 
slowly Christianity exerted a humanizing power. Ea- 
belais relates how the friar Jean des Entommeures 
clubbed twelve thousand and more enemies, “without 
mentioning women and children, which is understood 
always.” But this was War, as seen by that great ge¬ 
nius in his day. This can be no longer. Women and 
children are safe now. The divine metamorphosis has 
begun. 

Look again at the Past, and observe the change in 
dress . Down to a period quite recent the sword was the 
indispensable companion of the gentleman, wherever lie 
appeared, whether in street or society ; but he would be 
deemed madman or bully who should wear it now. At 
an earlier period the armor of complete steel was the 
habiliment of the knight. From the picturesque sketch 
by Sir Walter Scott, in the “ Lay of the Last Minstrel,” 
we learn the barbarous constraint of this custom. 

“ Ten of them were sheathed in steel, 

With belted sword, and spur on heel; 

They quitted not their harness bright, 

Neither by day nor yet by night: 


114 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


They lay down to rest 
With corslet laced, 

Pillowed on buckler cold and hard; 

They carved at the meal 
With gloves of steel, 

And they drank the red wine through the helmet barred.” 

But all this is changed now. 

Observe the change in architecture and in domestic 
life. Places once chosen for castles or houses were 
savage, inaccessible retreats, where the massive struc¬ 
ture was reared to repel attack and to enclose its in¬ 
habitants. Even monasteries and churches were forti¬ 
fied, and girdled by towers, ramparts, and ditches, — 
while a child was stationed as watchman, to observe 
what passed at a distance, and announce the approach of 
an enemy. Homes of peaceful citizens in towns were cas¬ 
tellated, often without so much as an aperture for light 
near the ground, but with loopholes through which the 
shafts of the crossbow were aimed. The colored plates 
now so common, from medieval illustrations, especially 
of Froissart, exhibit these belligerent armaments , always 
so burdensome. From a letter of Margaret Paston, in 
the time of Henry the Sixth, of England, I draw sup¬ 
plementary testimony. Addressing in dutiful phrase 
her “right worshipful husband,” she asks him to pro¬ 
cure for her “ some crossbows, and wyndacs [grappling- 
irons] to bind them with, and quarrels [arrows with 
square heads],” also “two or three short pole-axes to 
keep within doors”; and she tells her absent lord of 
apparent preparations by a neighbor, — “ great ord¬ 
nance within the house,” “ bars to bar the door cross¬ 
wise,” and “ wickets on every quarter of the house to 
shoot out at, both with bows and with hand-guns .” 1 

1 Paston Letters, CXIII. (LXXVII. Vol. III. p. 315.) 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 115 

Savages could hardly live in greater distrust. Let now 
the Poet of Chivalry describe another scene : — 

“ Ten squires, ten yeomen, mail-elad men, 

Waited the beck of the warders ten; 

Thirty steeds, both fleet and wight, 

Stood saddled in stable day and night, 

Barbed with frontlet of steel, I trow, 

And with Jed wood axe at saddle-bow; 

A hundred more fed free in stall: 

Such was the custom of Branksome Hall.” 

This also is all changed now. 

The principles causing this change are not only ac¬ 
tive still, but increasing in activity; nor can they be 
confined to individuals. Nations must soon declare 
them, and, abandoning martial habiliments and forti¬ 
fications, enter upon peaceful, unarmed life. With 
shame let it be said, that they continue to live in the 
very relations of distrust towards neighbors which 
shock us in the knights of Branksome Hall, and in the 
house of Margaret Paston. They pillow themselves on 
“ buckler cold and hard,” while their highest anxiety 
and largest expenditure are for the accumulation of new 
munitions of War. The barbarism which individuals 
have renounced nations still cherish. So doing, they take 
counsel of the wild-boar in the fable, who whetted his 
tusks on a tree of the forest when no enemy was near, 
saying, that in time of Peace he must prepare for War. 
Has not the time come, when man, whom God created 
in his own image, and to whom he gave the Heaven- 
directed countenance, shall cease to look down to the 
beast for an example of conduct ? Nay, let me not 
dishonor the beasts by the comparison. The superior 
animals, at least, prey not, like men, upon their own 
species. The kingly lion turns from his brother lion; 


116 


THE TEUE GEANDEUE OF NATIONS. 


the ferocious tiger will not raven upon his kindred 
tiger; the wild-hoar of the forest does not glut his 
sharpened tusks upon a kindred hoar. 

“ Sed jam serpentum major concordia: parcit 
Cognatis maculis similis fera: quando leoni 
Fortior eripuit vitam leo ? quo nemore unquam 
Exspiravit aper majoris dentibus apri? 

Indica tigris agit rabida cum tigride pacem 
Perpetuam .” 1 

To an early monarch of France just homage has heen 
offered for effort in the cause of Peace, particularly in 
abolishing the Trial by Battle. To another monarch of 
France, in our own day, descendant of St. Louis, and 
lover of Peace worthy of the illustrious lineage, Louis 
Philippe, belongs the honest fame of first from the 
throne publishing the truth that Peace is endangered 
by Preparations for War. “ The sentiment, or rather 
the principle,” he says, in reply to an address from the 
London Peace Convention in 1843, “that in Peace you 
must prepare for War, is one of difficulty and danger; 
for while we keep armies on land to preserve peace, they 
are at the same time incentives and instruments of war. 
He rejoiced in all efforts to preserve peace, for that was 
what all needed. He thought the time was coming when 
we should get rid entirely of war in all civilized coun¬ 
tries.” This time has been hailed by a generous voice 
from the Army itself, by a Marshal of France, — Bu- 
geaud, the Governor of Algiers, — who, at a public dinner 
in Paris, gave as a toast these words of salutation to a 
new and approaching era of happiness : “ To the pacific 
union of the great human family, by the association of 
individuals, nations, and races ! To the annihilation of 
War ! To the transformation of destructive armies into 


1 Juvenal, Sat. XV. 159-164. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


117 


corps of industrious laborers, who will consecrate their 
lives to the cultivation and embellishment of the 
world! ” Be it our duty to speed this consummation ! 
And may other soldiers emulate the pacific aspiration 
of this veteran chief, until the trade of War ceases from 
the earth! 1 

To William Penn belongs the distinction, destined to 
brighten as men advance in virtue, of first in human 
histoiy establishing the Law of Love as a rule of conduct 
in the intercourse of nations. While recognizing the 
duty “ to support power in reverence with the people, 
and to secure the people from the abuse of power,” 2 as a 
great end of government, he declined the superfluous 
protection of arms against foreign force, and aimed to 
“ reduce the savage nations by just and gentle manners 
to the love of civil society and the Christian religion.” 
His serene countenance, as he stands with his followers 
in what he called the sweet and clear air of Pennsyl¬ 
vania, all unarmed, beneath the spreading elm, forming 
the great treaty of friendship with the untutored Indi¬ 
ans, — whose savage display fills the surrounding forest 
as far as the eye can reach, — not to wrest their lands 
by violence, but to obtain them by peaceful purchase, 
— is to my mind the proudest picture in the history of 

1 There was a moment when the aspiration of the French marshal 
seemed fulfilled even in France, if we may credit the early Madame de 
Lafayette, who, in the first sentence of her Memoirs, announces perfect 
tranquillity, where “ no other arms were known than instruments for the 
cultivation of the earth and for building, and the troops were employed on 
these things.” Part of their work was to divert the waters of the Eure, so 
that the fountains at Versailles should have a perpetual supply : but this 
was better than War. — Madame de Lafayette, Memaires de la Cour de 
France pour les Annees 1688 et 1689, p. 1. 

2 Preface to Penn’s Frame of Government of the Province of Penn¬ 
sylvania: Hazard’s Register of Pennsylvania, Vol. I. p. 338. See also Clark¬ 
son’s Memoirs of Penn, Vol. I. p. 238, Philadelphia, 1814. 


118 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


our country. “ The great God,” said the illustrious 
Quaker, in words of sincerity and truth addressed to 
the Sachems, “ hath written his law in our hearts, by 
which we are taught and commanded to love and help 
and do good to one another. It is not our custom to 
use hostile weapons against our fellow-creatures, for 
which reason we come unarmed. Our object is not to 
do injury, but to do good. We are now met on the 
broad pathway of good faith and good will, so that no 
advantage is to be taken on either side, but all is to be 
openness, brotherhood, and love, while all are to be 
treated as of the same flesh and blood.” 1 These are 
words of True Greatness. “ Without any carnal weapons,” 
says one of his companions, “ we entered the land, and 
inhabited therein, as safe as if there had been thousands 
of garrisons.” What a sublime attestation! “ This 

little State,” says Oldmixon, “ subsisted in the midst 
of six Indian nations without so much as a militia 
for its defence.” A great man worthy of the mantle of 
Penn, the venerable philanthropist, Clarkson, in his life 
of the founder, pictures the people of Pennsylvania as 
armed, though without arms, — strong, though without 
strength, — safe, without the ordinary means of safety. 
According to him, the constable’s staff* was the only in¬ 
strument of authority for the greater part of a cen¬ 
tury ; and never, during the administration of Penn, or 
that of his proper successors, was there a quarrel or a 
war . 2 

Greater than the divinity that doth hedge a king is 
the divinity that encompasses the righteous man and 
the righteous people. The flowers of prosperity smiled 

1 Clarkson’s Memoirs of Penn, Vol. 1. Ch. 18. 

2 Ibid., Vol. II. Ch. 23. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


119 


in the footprints of William Penn. His people were 
unmolested and happy, while (sad, but true contrast!) 
other colonies, acting upon the policy of the world, 
building forts, and showing themselves in arms, were 
harassed by perpetual alarm, and pierced by the sharp 
arrows of savage war. 

This pattern of a Christian commonwealth never fails 
to arrest the admiration of all who contemplate its 
beauties. It drew an epigram of eulogy from the caus¬ 
tic pen of Voltaire, and has been fondly painted by sym¬ 
pathetic historians. Every ingenuous soul in our day 
offers willing tribute to those graces of justice and hu¬ 
manity, by the side of which contemporary life on this 
continent seems coarse and earthy. 

Not to barren words can we confine ourselves in recog¬ 
nition of virtue. While we see the right, and approve it 
too, we must dare to pursue it. Now, in this age of civ¬ 
ilization, surrounded by Christian nations, it is easy to 
follow the successful example of William Penn encom¬ 
passed by savages. Kecognizing those two transcend¬ 
ent ordinances of God, the Law of Right and the Law 
of Love , — twin suns which illumine the moral universe, 
— why not aspire to the true glory, and, what is higher 
than glory, the great good, of taking the lead in the dis¬ 
arming of the nations ? Let us abandon the system of 
Preparations for War in time of Peace, as irrational, un¬ 
christian, vainly prodigal of expense, and having a direct 
tendency to excite the evil against which it professes to 
guard. Let the enormous means thus released from 
iron hands be devoted to labors of beneficence. Our 
battlements shall be schools, hospitals, colleges, and 
churches ; our arsenals shall be libraries ; our navy shall 
be peaceful ships, on errands of perpetual commerce; 


120 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


our army shall be the teachers of youth and the minis¬ 
ters of religion. This is the cheap defence of nations. 
In such intrenchments what Christian soul can be 
touched with fear ? Angels of the Lord will throw 
over the land an invisible, but impenetrable panoply: — 

“ Or if Virtue feeble were, 

Heaven itself would stoop to her.” 1 

At the thought of such a change, the imagination 
loses itself in vain effort to follow the multitudinous 
streams of happiness which gush forth from a thou¬ 
sand hills. Then shall the naked be clothed and the 
hungry fed; institutions of science and learning shall 
crown every hill-top; hospitals for the sick, and other 
retreats for the unfortunate children of the world, for 
all who suffer in any way, in mind, body, or estate, 
shall nestle in every valley; while the spires of new 
churches leap exulting to the skies. The whole land 
shall testify to the change. Art shall confess it in the 
new inspiration of the canvas and the marble. The 

1 These are the concluding words of that most exquisite creation of early 
genius, the “ Comus.” Beyond their intrinsic value, they have authority from 
the circumstance that they were adopted by Milton as a motto, and inscribed 
by him in an album at Geneva, while on his foreign travels. This album is 
now in my hands. The truth thus embalmed by the grandest poet of mod¬ 
em times is also illustrated in familiar words by the most graceful poet of 
antiquity: — 

“ Integer vitae scelerisque purus 
Non eget Mauris jaculis, neque arcu, 

Nec venenatis gravida sagittis, 

Fusee, pharetra.” 

Hor., Carm. I. xxii. 1-4. 

Dryden pictures the same in some of his most magical lines: — 

“ A milk-white hind, immortal and unchanged, 

Fed on the lawns, and in the forest ranged; 

Without unspotted, innocent within, 

She feared no danger, for she knew no sin.” 

The Bind and the Panther , Part I. 1-4. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


121 


harp of the poet shall proclaim it in a loftier rhyme. 
Above all, the heart of man shall bear witness to it, in 
the elevation of his sentiments, in the expansion of his 
affections, in his devotion to the highest truth, in his 
appreciation of true greatness. The eagle of our coun¬ 
try, without the terror of his beak, and dropping the 
forceful thunderbolt from his pounces, shall soar, with 
the olive of Peace, into untried realms of ether, nearer 
to the sun. 

I pause to review the field over which we have 
passed. We have beheld War, sanctioned by Inter¬ 
national Law as a mode of determining justice between 
nations, elevated into an established custom , defined and 
guarded by a complex code known as the Laws of War; 
we have detected its origin in an appeal, not to the 
moral and intellectual part of man’s nature, in which 
alone is Justice, but to that low part which he has in 
common with the beast; we have contemplated its in¬ 
finite miseries to the human race; we have weighed its 
sufficiency as a mode of determining justice between 
nations, and found that it is a rude invocation to force, 
or a gigantic game of chance, in which God’s children 
are profanely treated as a pack of cards, while, in un¬ 
natural wickedness, it is justly likened to the monstrous 
and impious custom of Trial by Battle, which disgraced 
the Dark Ages, —thus showing, that, in this day of 
boastful civilization, justice between nations is deter¬ 
mined by the same rules of barbarous, brutal violence 
which once controlled the relations between individuals. 
We have next considered the various prejudices by 
which War is sustained, founded on a false belief in its 
necessity, — the practice of nations, past and present, 


122 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


the infidelity of the Christian Church, — a mistaken 
sentiment of honor, — an exaggerated idea of the duties 
of patriotism, — and finally, that monster prejudice 
which draws its vampire life from the vast Prepara¬ 
tions for War in time of Peace; — especially dwelling, 
at this stage, upon the thriftless, irrational, and un¬ 
christian character of these Preparations,—bailing also 
the auguries of their overthrow, — and catching a vision 
of the surpassing good that will be achieved, when the 
boundless means thus barbarously employed are dedi¬ 
cated to works of Peace, opening the serene path to 
that righteousness which exalteth a nation. 

And now, if it be asked why, in considering the true 
grandeur of nations, I dwell thus singly and exclu¬ 
sively on War, it is because War is utterly and irrecon¬ 
cilably inconsistent with True Greatness. Thus far, man 
has worshipped in Military Glory a phantom idol, com¬ 
pared with which the colossal images of ancient Baby¬ 
lon or modern Hindostan are but toys; and we, in this 
favored land of freedom, in this blessed day of light, 
are among the idolaters. The Heaven-descended in¬ 
junction, Know thyself\ still speaks to an unheeding 
world from the far-off letters of gold at Delphi: Know 
thyself; know that the moral is the noblest 'part of man , 
transcending far that which is the seat of passion, strife, 
and War, —nobler than the intellect itself. And the 
human heart, in its untutored, spontaneous homage 
to the virtues of Peace, declares the same truth, — 
admonishing the military idolater that it is not the 
bloody combats, even of bravest chiefs, even of gods 
themselves, as they echo from the resounding lines of 
the great Poet of War, which receive the warmest ad- 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 123 

miration, but those two scenes where are painted the 
gentle, unwarlike affections of our nature, the Parting 
of Hector from Andromache, and the Supplication of 
Priam. In the definitive election of these peaceful 
pictures, the soul of man, inspired by a better wisdom 
than that of books, and drawn unconsciously by the 
heavenly attraction of what is truly great, acknowl¬ 
edges, in touching instances, the vanity of Military 
Glory. The Beatitudes of Christ, which shrink from 
saying, “Blessed are the War-makers,” inculcate the 
same lesson. Reason affirms and repeats what the 
heart has prompted and Christianity proclaimed. Sup¬ 
pose War decided by Force , where is the glory ? Sup¬ 
pose it decided by Chance , where is the glory ? Surely, 
in other ways True Greatness lies. Nor is it difficult 
to tell where. 

True Greatness consists in imitating, as nearly as pos¬ 
sible for finite man, the perfections of an Infinite Crea¬ 
tor, — above all, in cultivating those highest perfections, 
Justice and Love : Justice, which, like that of St. Louis, 
does not swerve to the right hand or to the left; Love, 
which, like that of William Penn, regards all mankind 
as of kin. “ God is angry,” says Plato, “ when any one 
censures a man like Himself, or praises a man of an 
opposite character: and the godlike man is the good 
man.” 1 Again, in another of those lovely dialogues 
precious with immortal truth : “ Nothing resembles God 
more than that man among us who has attained to the 
highest degree of justice .” 2 The True Greatness of 
Nations is in those qualities which constitute the true 
greatness of the individual. It is not in extent of ter¬ 
ritory, or vastness of population, or accumulation of 


l Minos, § 12. 


2 Theaetetus, § 85. 


124 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


wealth, — not in fortifications, or armies, or navies, — 
not in the sulphurous blaze of battle, — not in Golgothas, 
though covered by monuments that kiss the clouds; 
for all these are creatures and representatives of those 
qualities in our nature which are unlike anything in 
God’s nature. Nor is it in triumphs of the intellect 
alone, — in literature, learning, science, or art. The 
polished Greeks, our masters in the delights of art, and 
the commanding Romans, overawing the earth with 
their power, were little more than splendid savages. 
And the age of Louis the Fourteenth, of France, span¬ 
ning so long a period of ordinary worldly magnificence, 
thronged by marshals bending under military laurels, 
enlivened by the unsurpassed comedy of Moliere, dig¬ 
nified by the tragic genius of Corneille, illumined by 
the splendors of Bossuet, is degraded by immoralities 
that cannot be mentioned without a blush, by a heart¬ 
lessness in comparison with which the ice of Nova 
Zembla is warm, and by a succession of deeds of in¬ 
justice not to be washed out by the tears of all the re¬ 
cording angels of Heaven. 

The True Greatness of a Nation cannot be in tri¬ 
umphs of the intellect alone. Literature and art may 
enlarge the sphere of its influence; they may adorn 
it; but in their nature they are but accessaries. The 
True Grandeur of Humanity is in moral elevation, sus¬ 
tained, enlightened, and decorated by the intellect of 
man. The surest tokens of this grandeur in a na¬ 
tion are that Christian Beneficence which diffuses the 
greatest happiness among all, and that passionless, 
godlike Justice which controls the relations of the 
nation to other nations, and to all the people committed 
to its charge. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


125 


But War crushes with bloody heel all beneficence, all 
happiness, all justice, all that is godlike in man, — sus¬ 
pending every commandment of the Decalogue, setting 
at naught every principle of the Gospel, and silencing 
all law, human as well as divine, except only that im¬ 
pious code of its own, the Laws of War. If in its dis¬ 
mal annals there is any cheerful passage, be assured it 
is not inspired by a martial Fury. Let it not be for¬ 
gotten, let it be ever borne in mind, as you ponder this 
theme, that the virtues which shed their charm over its 
horrors are all borrowed of Peace, — that they are 
emanations from the Spirit of Love, which is so strong 
in the heart of man that it survives the rudest assault. 
The flowers of gentleness, kindliness, fidelity, humani¬ 
ty, which flourish unregarded in the rich meadows of 
Peace, receive unwonted admiration when we discern 
them in War, — like violets shedding their perfume on 
the perilous edge of the precipice, beyond the smiling 
borders of civilization. God be praised for all the ex¬ 
amples of magnanimous virtue which he has vouch¬ 
safed to mankind ! God be praised, that the Roman 
Emperor, about to start on a distant expedition of War, 
encompassed by squadrons of cavalry, and by golden 
eagles swaying in the wind, stooped from his saddle to 
hear the prayer of a humble widow, demanding justice 
for the death of her son ! 1 God be praised, that Sid¬ 
ney, on the field of battle, gave with dying hand the cup 
of cold water to the dying soldier ! That single act of 

1 According to the legends of the Catholic Church, this most admired in¬ 
stance of justice opened to Trajan, although a heathen, the gates of salva¬ 
tion. Dante found the scene and the “ visible speech ” of the widow and 
Emperor storied on the walls of Purgatory, and has transmitted them in a 
passage which commends itself hardly less than any in the divine poem. — 
See Purgatorio , Canto X. 


126 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


self-forgetful sacrifice lias consecrated the deadly field 
of Zutphen, far, oh, far beyond its battle ; it has conse¬ 
crated thy name, gallant Sidney, beyond any feat of thy 
sword, beyond any triumph of thy pen ! But there are 
lowly suppliants in other places than the camp ; there 
are hands outstretched elsewhere than on fields of blood. 
Everywhere is opportunity for deeds of like charity. 
Know well that these are not the product of War. 
They do not spring from enmity, hatred, and strife, but 
from those benign sentiments whose natural and ripened 
fruit of joy and blessing are found only in Peace. If at 
any time they appear in the soldier, it is less because 
than notwithstanding he is the hireling of battle. Let 
me not be told, then, of the virtues of War. Let not 
the acts of generosity and sacrifice sometimes blossom¬ 
ing on its fields be invoked in its defence. From such 
a giant root of bitterness no true good can spring. The 
poisonous tree, in Oriental imagery, though watered 
by nectar and covered with roses, produces only the 
fruit of death. 

Casting our eyes over the history of nations, with 
horror we discern the succession of murderous slaugh¬ 
ters by which their progress is marked. Even as the 
hunter follows the wild beast to his lair by the drops 
of blood on the ground, so we follow Man, faint, weary, 
staggering with wounds, through the Black Forest of 
the Past, which he has reddened with his gore. Oh, let 
it not he in the future ages as in those we now contem¬ 
plate ! Let the grandeur of man be discerned, not in 
bloody victory or ravenous conquest, but in the bless¬ 
ings he has secured, in the good he has accomplished, 
in the triumphs of Justice and Beneficence, in the 
establishment of Perpetual Peace! 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


127 


As ocean washes every shore, and with all-em¬ 
bracing arms clasps every land, while on its heaving 
bosom it bears the products of various climes, so Peace 
surrounds, protects, and upholds all other blessings. 
Without it, commerce is vain, the ardor of industry is 
restrained, justice is arrested, happiness is blasted, vir¬ 
tue sickens and dies. 

Peace, too, has its own peculiar victories, in compari¬ 
son with which Marathon and Bannockburn and Bunker 
Hill, fields sacred in the history of human freedom, lose 
their lustre. Our own Washington rises to a truly 
heavenly stature, not when we follow him through the 
ice of the Delaware to the capture of Trenton, not when 
we behold him victorious over Cornwallis at Yorktown, 
but when we regard him, in noble deference to Justice, 
refusing the kingly crown which a faithless soldiery 
proffered, and at a later day upholding the peaceful 
neutrality of the country, while he met unmoved the 
clamor of the people wickedly crying for War. What 
glory of battle in England’s annals will not fade by the 
side of that great act of justice, when her Parliament, at 
a cost of one hundred million dollars, gave freedom to 
eight hundred thousand slaves ? And when the day 
shall come (may these eyes be gladdened by its beams !) 
that shall witness an act of larger justice still, — the 
peaceful emancipation of three million fellow-men 
“ guilty of a skin not colored as our own,” now, in this 
land of jubilant freedom, bound in gloomy bondage, — 
then will there be a victory by the side of which that 
of Bunker Hill will be as the farthing candle held 
up to the sun. That victory will need no monument 
of stone. It will be written on the grateful hearts of 
countless multitudes that shall proclaim it to the 


128 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


latest generation. It will be one of the famed land¬ 
marks of civilization, — or, better still, a link in the 
golden chain by which Humanity connects itself with 
the throne of God. 

As man is higher than the beasts of the field, as the 
angels are higher than man, as Christ is higher than 
Mars, as he that ruleth his spirit is higher than he that 
taketh a city, — so are the victories of Peace higher than 
the victories of War. 

Far be from us, fellow-citizens, on this festival, the 
pride of national victory, and the illusion of national 
freedom, in which we are too prone to indulge ! None 
of you make rude boast of individual prosperity or 
prowess. And here I end as I began. Our country 
cannot do what an individual cannot do. Therefore it 
must not vaunt or be puffed up. Rather bend to un¬ 
performed duties. Independence is not all. We have 
but half done, when we have made ourselves free. The 
scornful taunt wrung from bitter experience of the great 
Revolution in France must not be levelled at us : “ They 
wish to be free , but know not how to be just” 1 Nor 
is priceless Freedom an end in itself, but rather the 
means of Justice and Beneficence, where alone is en¬ 
during concord, with that attendant happiness which 
is the final end and aim of Nations, as of every human 
heart. It is not enough to be free. There must be 
Peace which cannot fail, and other nations must share 
the great possession. For this good must we labor, bear¬ 
ing ever in mind two special objects, complements of 
each other: first, the Arbitrament of War must end ; and, 

1 “ lls veulent etre libres , et ne savent pas etre justes was the famous ex¬ 
clamation of Siey6s. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


129 


secondly, Disarmament must begin. With this ending 
and this beginning the great gates of the Future will be 
opened, and the guardian virtues will assert a new 
empire. Alas ! until this is done, National Honor and 
National Glory will yet longer Haunt in blood, and there 
can be no True Grandeur of Nations. 

To this great work let me summon you. That Fu¬ 
ture, which filled the lofty vision of sages and bards in 
Greece and Rome, which was foretold by Prophets and 
heralded by Evangelists, when man, in Happy Isles, or 
in a new Paradise, shall confess the loveliness of Peace, 
may you secure, if not for yourselves, at least for your 
children! Believe that you can do it, and you can do it. 
The true Golden Age is before, not behind. If man has 
once been driven from Paradise, while an angel with 
flaming sword forbade his return, there is another Para¬ 
dise, even on earth, which he may make for himself, 
by the cultivation of knowledge, religion, and the kindly 
virtues of life, — where the confusion of tongues shall 
be dissolved in the union of hearts, and joyous Nature, 
borrowing prolific charms from prevailing Harmony, 
shall spread her lap with unimagined bounty, and 
there shall be perpetual jocund Spring, and sweet strains 
borne on “ the odoriferous wing of gentle gales,” through 
valleys of delight more pleasant than the Vale of Tempe, 
richer than the Garden of the Hesperides, with no dragon 
to guard its golden fruit. 

Is it said that the age does not demand this work ? 
The robber conqueror/of the Past, from fiery sepulchre, 
demands it; the precious blood of millions unjustly 
shed in War, crying from the ground, demands it; the 
heart of the good man demands it; the conscience, 
even of the soldier, whispers, “ Peace! ” There are 


130 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


considerations springing from our situation and con¬ 
dition which fervently invite us to take the lead. 
Here should join the patriotic ardor of the land, the 
ambition of the statesman, the effort of the scholar, the 
pervasive influence of the press, the mild persuasion of 
the sanctuary, the early teaching of the school. Here, 
in ampler ether and diviner air, are untried fields 
for exalted triumph, more truly worthy the American 
name than any snatched from rivers of blood. War 
is known as the Last Reason of Kings. Let it be no 
reason of our Eepublic. Let us renounce and throw 
off forever the yoke of a tyranny most oppressive 
of all in the world’s annals. As those standing on 
the mountain-top first discern the coming beams of 
morning, so may we, from the vantage-ground of lib¬ 
eral institutions, first recognize the ascending sun of 
a new era! Lift high the gates, and let the King 
of Glory in, — the King of True Glory, — of Pe ace ? 
I catch the last words of music from the lips of im 
nocence and beauty , 1 — 

“ And let the whole earth be filled with His Glory! ” 

It is a beautiful picture in Grecian story, that there 
was at least one spot, the small island of Delos, dedi¬ 
cated to the gods, and kept at all times sacred from 
War. No hostile foot ever pressed this kindly soil, 
and citizens of all countries met here, in common 
worship, beneath the aegis of inviolable Peace. So let 
us dedicate our beloved country; and may the blessed 
consecration be felt in all its parts, everywhere through¬ 
out its ample domain! The Temple of Honor shall 

1 The services of the choir on this occasion were performed by the youth¬ 
ful daughters of the public schools of Boston. 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 131 

be enclosed by the Temple of Concord, that it may 
never more be entered through any portal of War; 
the horn of Abundance shall overflow at its gates; 
the angel of Religion shall be the guide over its steps 
of flashing adamant; while within its happy courts, 
purged of Violence and Wrong, Justice, returned to 
the earth from long exile in the skies, with equal 
scales for nations as for men, shall rear her serene 
and majestic front; and by her side, greatest of all. 
Charity, sublime in meekness, hoping all and en¬ 
during all, shall divinely temper every righteous 
decree, and with words of infinite cheer inspire 
to those deeds that cannot vanish away. And the 
future chief of the Republic, destined to uphold the 
glories of a new era, unspotted by human blood, 
shall be first in Peace, first in the hearts of his coun¬ 
trymen. 

While seeking these fruitful glories for ourselves, let 
us strive for their extension to other lands. Let the 
bugles sound the Truce of God to the whole world for¬ 
ever. Not to one people, but to every people, let the 
glad tidings go. The selfish boast of the Spartan women, 
that they never saw the smoke of an enemy’s camp, 
must become the universal chorus of mankind, while 
the iron belt of War, now encompassing the globe, is 
exchanged for the golden cestus of Peace, clothing all 
with celestial beauty. History dwells with fondness on 
the reverent homage bestowed by massacring soldiers 
upon the spot occupied by the sepulchre of the Lord. 
Vain man! why confine regard to a few feet of sa¬ 
cred mould ? The whole earth is the sepulchre of the 
Lord; nor can any righteous man profane * any part 
thereof. Confessing this truth, let us now, on this Sab- 


132 


THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS. 


bath of the Nation, lay a new and living stone in the 
grand Temple of Universal Peace, whose dome shall be 
lofty as the firmament of heaven, broad and compre¬ 
hensive as earth itself. 


LIBRARY 

AUG 31 1926 
Department of State. 




WORLD PEACE FOUNDATION 

(Formerly the International School of Peace) 


PAMPHLET SERIES 


THE MISSION OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE 
CAUSE OF PEACE. By Hon. David J. Brewer 

THE LITERATURE OF THE PEACE MOVEMENT 

By Edwin D. Mead 

HEROES OF PEACE. By Edwin D. Mead 

THE RESULTS OF THE TWO HAGUE CONFERENCES 
AND THE DEMANDS UPON THE THIRD CON¬ 
FERENCE. By Edwin D. Mead 

EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATfOTfe'PROMOTING INTER¬ 
NATIONAL FRIENDSHIP. By Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead 

THE WASTE OF MILITARISM ‘ 

From the Report of the Massachusetts Commission on the Cost of Living 

SOME SUPPOSED JUST CAUSES OF WAR 

By Hon. Jackson H. Ralston 

WAR NOT INEVITABLE. By Hon. John W. Foster 
THE GRANGE AND PEACE 

Report adopted by the National Grange, 1909 

Price, $3-00per hundred copies 
Single copies sent free to all applicants 







INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY 


Edited by EDWIN D. MEAD 


PUBLISHED FOR THE WORLD PEACE FOUNDATION BY 
GINN AND COMPANY, 29 BEACON STREET, BOSTON 


Hale — Mohonk Addresses. Mailing price, $1.00 
Ralston — International Arbitral Law and Procedure. 

Mailing price, $2.20 

Scott — American Addresses at the Second Hague Conference. 

Mailing price, $1.65 

Mead — The Great Design of Henry IV. Mailing price, 55 cents 
Scott — The Texts of the Peace Conferences at The Hague. 

Mailing price, $2.20 

Hull — The Two Hague Conferences. Mailing price, $1.65 
Walsh — The Moral Damage of War. Mailing price, 90 cents 
Dodge — War Inconsistent with the Religion of Jesus Christ. 

Mailing price, 60 cents 

Bridgman — World Organization. Mailing price, 60 cents 
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Evans — Life of Sir Randal Cremer. Mailing price, $1.40 

Messrs. Ginn and Company have also published for the World Peace 
Foundation the following works in pamphlet form 

BETHINK YOURSELVES! — By Leo Tolstoi. Postpaid, 10 cents 

A LEAGUE OF PEACE: Rectorial Address before the University of 
St. Andrews — By Andrew Carnegie. Postpaid, 10 cents 

ORGANIZE THE WORLD — By Edwin D. Mead. Postpaid, 10 


cents 


PATRIOTISM AND THE NEW INTERNATIONALISM. A 
Manual for Teachers. — By Lucia Ames Mead. Postpaid, 20 
cents 


H 



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